In Any Other World
by Aehryn
Summary: Sasuke is back in Konoha,after a couple months the three are best friends again. But when Sasuke and Sakura become a couple, Naruto seems to start to act a little strange around Sasuke. Including, blushing, running away, and such.SasuSaku Onesided NaruSas
1. Prologue

**Okay well this kind of just popped into my brain one day! I decided to multi-task the stories. I still will write Sometimes It's Just Not Enough (My other SasuSaku story). I just had this idea and immediately had to write.**

**Summary: Team 7 has tried and tried to retrieve Sasuke back and force him into the village and every time they failed. Then Naruto disappeared for 8 months and finally brought him back. Sasuke is forced to live with Naruto, and a couple months later Sakura and Sasuke find feelings for each other. But an unlikely team member discovers hidden feelings for Sasuke as well…**

**The main pair will be SasuSaku, and a one sided NaruSasu later on…Sorry if you don't like boyxboy. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

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**In Any Other World**

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It was a hot sunny summer morning in Konoha, the day where Team 7 gave reports of their new failure to bring Sasuke back. Sakura, Sai, Naruto, and Yamato stood in front of the Hokage's desk. The team must have tried a _billion_ times to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke and Tsunade's patience has gone dry. 

Tsunade's eyes were closed calmly with her hands cuffed under her chin in thought. "Tch, Team 7 you have tried to bring Uchiha Sasuke back numerous amounts of times and all of them you failed at. I can no longer send out valuable teams on hopeless chases. You are expected to NEVER look for the Uchiha until we have more evidence and a more hopeful situation." Silence of disappointment struck Team Seven; Sakura simply stared at her black boots. Naruto decided to take much louder drastic actions.

He launched himself at the Hokage's desk but just as he was about to leap on the table dramatically, Sai grabbed a handful of his collar with the same impassive look on his face as ever. Naruto however ripped the cloth right out of his hands and screeched, "You can't do this! We've gotten so close! Orochimaru is dead!" He exclaimed slamming his hand on the desk. Naruto was shaking with emotion, the rest of team 7 just stood back and silently agreed in their minds.

"Shut up you brat. You've went through the same mission over and over again. It failed every time. Progress _has_ been made but we can't just focus on Sasuke anymore. We have bigger problems at our hands, Akatsuki are on the move." Tsunade's eyes flashed open and glared at the emotionally unstable blond causing him to flinch noticeably. "There's nothing more we can do at this moment, does he even _seem _at all interested to come back to this village? The village people probably won't even _accept _him back. Team Seven you are dismissed until further missions arrive for you."

Team Seven in fact _did _know that Uchiha Sasuke had no intention of returning to Konoha ever, and that they'd have to use force to get him back to the village. They knew that if they were to go after him now would mean another failure, but the team just couldn't let him go. Well, more like Sakura and Naruto couldn't.

"Well, get some rest…There's no training today and I'll give you the day off tomorrow to train on your own. Ja," Yamato dismissed them and in a puff of smoke disappeared leaving his distraught team members standing at the bridge.

Without a single word of farewell Sai just silently left towards his home leaving the quiet Naruto and Sakura a lone on the bridge. "Ne…Naruto, let's go buy some ramen tonight at Ichiraku's." Sakura timidly suggested in hopes that this would cheer up Naruto and it proved to be a success.

Immediately afterwards, Naruto's usual cheerful smile popped up into his face, "Really?! Like a date?!" Sakura weakly smiled, of course Naruto would mistake the friendly suggestion as a date.

"Uh…Sort of," Sakura's eye visibly twitched, almost regretting this decision but she was glad that it cheered him up. "Okay, I'll meet you there tonight at 6." And with that said the two walked off their separate ways to their homes.

Sakura was about to open her door when someone grabbed her shoulder. She let out a horrified scream and fell through the door afraid someone was attacking her. A laugh burst out and a very familiar voice reached her ears, "Ha-ha! Sakura, you're so jumpy and clumsy it's hilarious."

Sakura gave Ino a big glare and muttered an embarrassed, "Shut up, Ino-pig," using her old nickname against her. Ino just simply smiled and helped her up with a big heave.

"So…How did the mission go?" Ino asked curiously as they made their way into Sakura's house onto the living room couch. Sakura's mother came out with cups of tea for them and Sakura took a sip before even thinking about responding.

"Well, not very well. We failed." Sakura smiled apologetically towards Ino, and she just had a look of understanding across her face as if she wasn't surprised by the fact that they failed. "We're forbidden to go after Sasuke-kun for a while. She thinks it's a hopeless case." Sakura winced as Ino's face contorted into worry.

"You're joking right?" Ino asked cautiously, Sakura simply shook her head. "Oh…Well, we're bound to run into him on one of our missions." She glanced at her watch and immediately her face blanched. "Hey, I have to go; I was supposed to be at the flower shop 15 minutes ago!"

As soon as Ino was gone Sakura slipped off her boots and gloves and lay down on the couch simply staring at the ceiling. Exhaustion seeped through her and she shortly fell asleep.

Hours later Sakura woke up and began to get ready for Ichiraku. Instead of wearing the normal clothes she would wear on missions she chose a simple red skirt and black top for a change. She figured she might as well since she won't be doing missions in a while. Pulling her hair from her face with her headband she walked out the door towards the ramen stand.

Naruto was patiently waiting for Sakura; he obviously didn't change from his clothes since he was sitting on a stool in his usual jacket and pants. How he managed to stay cool in that, people would never know.

"Hey, Naruto!" Sakura smiled cheerfully taking the stool next to him, "How 'bout I pay tonight. My treat?"

Naruto's mouth gaped open at the offer of free ramen, and he nodded hastily. "Thanks, Sakura-chan!"

Naruto ended up eating 8 bowls of ramen much to Sakura's dismay, she watched him in half disgust and half amazement as he wolfed down the ramen in a mere 15 minutes. They left the stand and began to take a walk around Konoha.

Though halfway through their walk Naruto's smile slipped and he looked distractedly down at the ground. Sakura seemed to notice and hastily began to ask, "Do you want to train tomorrow with me, Naruto?" He didn't seem to have heard until he snapped out of his daze and shook his head rapidly.

"Ahhh, Gomen Sakura. I can't, I'm training with Kiba tomorrow…" His voice trailed off, it was very obvious that something was wrong and it filled the pink haired kunoichi with concern. She just nodded her head and kept walking in comfortable silence.

When it got dark Naruto walked Sakura home and they said their normal goodbyes as if there wasn't anything wrong. "I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto." Sakura waved goodbye and smiled. Naruto just weakly smiled and waved and left with a mere utter of a "Goodbye"

Sakura sat in her room very concerned about Naruto; he always took it the hardest whenever they failed at bringing Sasuke back. She knew she was partly to blame for that since she practically made him make the promise that he would definitely bring him back. After awhile she fell asleep only to wake up in the morning by a very loud knock on her house's door.

Sakura groggily woke up and slowly made her way to the door in her pajamas, "Who is it?" She grumpily yelled as she neared the door.

"It's Shizune, open up Sakura. This is urgent!" Sakura hastily opened the door a knot forming in her stomach, dread filling inside her. "It's Naruto…He's missing. We think he went looking for Sasuke!" Sakura's fears came true and she hurriedly ran into her room and got her usual clothes on and sprinted out the door towards the Hokage's tower.

Sakura burst through the doors to be greeted by Jiraiya, Kakashi, Yamato, and Sai standing around the desk. The kunoichi was out of breath by the time she stood by Sai. "Morning Sakura," Tsunade spoke from behind the desk. Sakura merely nodded in greeting. "Naruto has indeed left to find Sasuke. Ordinarily, I would send out a search party but the Village Council will simply not allow it. They said it would be a waste of time, resources, and skilled peoples to find just one person." The whole team's faces paled and they all thought the same thing.

Naruto having the Kyuubi sealed inside of him should have been a big enough to send out Anbu or a simple Chuunin/Jounin squad out to bring him back. But, the whole village knew that the council simply detested Naruto and could care less if Naruto ran far away from the village, they'd probably even be overjoyed.

"I would give anything to send out the rest of Team Seven to retrieve the brat, even go myself…But the council would expel you from your ninja careers. I can, however, keep Naruto from being named a Missing-nin, and simply say that it was a mission. He won't be in any sort of trouble by the Council whatsoever when he comes back," the Hokage said, everyone could tell by her eyes and expression that she blamed herself for the disappearance of the cheerful blond.

The team was reduced to: Yamato, Kakashi, Sai, and Sakura. Tsunade explained to them that they would be accompanied by Team Gai when they were on missions. Sakura spent large amounts of time locked in her room for weeks when she didn't have anything to do, feeling as if she failed the team. First Sasuke, now Naruto. She was left in a pitiful state though she eventually picked herself up and started to be normal again a month later.

So for 8 long months the team went on numerous missions with Team Gai, trained as hard as they could, and waited for the day Naruto would come back because surely there was no hope that he would successfully bring Sasuke back…At least, until the both of them arrived at Konoha's gates.

When Shikamaru came to Sakura's door in the morning telling her that both Naruto _and _Sasuke showed up at the gates in terrible conditions with fatal wounds Sakura almost fainted. She quickly gathered her things and with Shikamaru close behind, the cold January air nipping at her bare arms and legs.

She slammed the doors of Tsunade's office open with excitement and managed to startle Shizune. "Where are they?" Sakura looked around as if Naruto and Sasuke would be lying inside the Hokage's office.

Shizune stepped forward and placed a comforting arm around Sakura, "Don't worry, their in the hospital wing. Tsunade would like you to go over there and assist her as soon as possible." Sakura nodded, took off her gloves, tied up her hair, and made her way to the hospital wing in search of her newly found teammates.

Sakura was directed into a hospital room right near the lobby; Naruto was lying in a bed looking very similar to a mummy in all the bandages wrapped around his body. He weakly smiled from his position on the bed, "Sakura-chan…I'm so sorry I left without a goodbye." He said, his smile never fading even in his wounded state. Tears swelled in Sakura's eyes as she simply nodded in forgiveness, she sat at the edge of Naruto's bed.

Tsunade silently entered the room looking exhausted, "Sakura, I'll ask you to take Naruto in as your patient." Sakura looked up at her in surprise, she was happy that she would be the one to heal Naruto. "Sasuke will be in the extensive care unit for around a week, after that we'll sort everything out. Naruto will only have to stay here for 5 more days, lucky for him." Tsunade smiled gently at Naruto then shook her head and walked out the door.

Sakura was lost for words, tears falling from her eyes as she stared at her lap at a loss for words. "I told you I'd bring him back!" Naruto said excitedly, though there was still concern in his eyes she could tell. "That bastard put up a huge fight though…" His voice faltered and at first Sakura thought there was something bugging the boy until she looked up at his face and noticed he was asleep.

**A Week Later**

Sakura was summoned into Tsunade's office, the first thing she saw was Naruto standing by her desk with a huge grin on his face. Sakura hurried to his side looking expectantly at Tsunade her heart jumping with hope. "Okay, I have good news for you both. Naruto is officially out of the hospital today after having to spend 2 extra days in the hospital. As for Sasuke he will be out of the extensive care unit this afternoon, I am resentful about placing him in the hospital room a lone without supervision so the village council has ordered me to place him with another teammate." Sakura almost squealed with delight at the thought of Sasuke recovering so soon as to being able to go to a home.

"The problem is…I'm not sure who should get stuck with the Uchiha brat. So, Naruto you will be in charge of the Uchiha and he will live with you until I think he is ready to live on his own. You are _not _to let him outside without you being with him," Tsunade ordered in a stern voice and she stared expectantly at him. "You brought him back and now he's your burden!"

Naruto stood there for a minute trying to take it all in, his mouth dropped open. Whatever he was expecting wasn't this, "Are you sure? I guess he could stay with me, I don't know if the apartment is big enough…" Tsunade shrugged her shoulders as if she couldn't care less.

"Take this as part of your punishment for leaving Konoha without permission," Tsunade smirked. "Well, we should be going to pick up the Uchiha right about now." With that Naruto, Sakura, and Tsunade were walking down the hospital halls towards the room that held the Uchiha. Sakura felt as if she would pass out any minute, this would be the first time in 5 year that they would see Sasuke in Konoha without a threat of attack since they were almost 17.

They reached the room and Tsunade slid the door open carefully. Sakura and Naruto entered, Sasuke was perched on a chair next to the hospital bed. Immediately the pink haired girl's eyes filled with tears and she approached the long lost teammate. "Sasuke-kun…" She muttered threw her tears. Sasuke-kun just stared at her with his emotionless eyes but they could all tell he had no intentions of leaving, surprisingly. Both Sakura and Tsunade expected Sasuke to run at the first chance he could find but he didn't.

"It's been decided that you will live with Naruto until you fully recover. You are not to leave Naruto's house without him being with you, if you are you will be severely punished and jailed." Sasuke simply nodded in consent. Tsunade handed him a heavy suitcase and Sasuke stared at her quizzically. "These are your new clothes since you don't have any fitting clothes to wear around here. Sakura will be over to Naruto's house every day to give you medicine and such."

An hour later after Sasuke received a check up, Naruto and Sasuke made their way to their new apartment. "Ahh, I need ramen!" The blond moaned, he was currently holding his stomach while it growled as if to ask for food.

"Hn, you're still a dobe even after all these years," The raven haired teenager replied, smirking at Naruto.

"Teme!" Naruto screeched as he unlocked the door and stepped in. He looked around at the surprisingly clean apartment. "Wow! Someone cleaned it, must've been Sakura-chan!"

The two unpacked their clothes into the small guest room and made the room suitable for a teenage boy to sleep in. Naruto yawned after they finished unpacking Naruto's apartment, "I'm exhausted!" He exclaimed after relaxing down on the couch. They finished their packing and it was already late in the afternoon when they heard the doorbell ring. "I'll get it!" Naruto yelled out as he opened the door to reveal Sakura.

"Hey, I was just wondering how everything was going." Sakura was obviously excited about spending time with Sasuke-kun again and to try to figure out what happened that he came back. Sasuke came out of the bathroom in his new clothes which obviously weren't for training, slightly baggy black pants and a simple t-shirt with the Uchiha symbol on the back.

"Sasuke-kun!" She screamed excitedly as if it was the first time she's seen him when he came up to stand beside Naruto. As if she's been holding back the urge all day she threw herself at them both and forced them into a hug, the two other team members were surprised and fell over in a heap. Naruto and Sakura burst into laughter while Sasuke just sat up rubbing his head with a slight smile on his face.

Noticing the smile Sakura stopped laughing and stared at him, "Sasuke-kun you're actually smiling!" She pointed out in excitement.

It has almost been 3 weeks for the original Team Seven members since Naruto and Sasuke arrived. Naruto was welcomed back and all his friends, Chouji, Neji, Shikamaru, Ino, Lee, Kiba, Hinata, and everyone else were extremely happy Naruto was back. But not a lot of people welcomed Sasuke back with opened arms, there was a lot of arguments happening about even letting him back in the village. Sakura and Naruto were positive Sasuke wouldn't betray them again as they spent more time with him. Sakura went over to their house every day to train a long with Kakashi.

It was obvious that Sakura's old feelings were coming back towards Sasuke, except she felt that this time it was different. She had managed to get the once emotionless Uchiha to open up and actually even smile a bit, and with every smile her heart would flutter a bit. She willed her feelings down though, she wasn't sure if it was love or just a silly crush and she didn't want to lose her best friend again.

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**A/N: Ahh, sorry they didn't hook up in this chapter. Probably next chapter though. Next chapter will probably be a couple months later.**

**Well at any rate, I hope you really enjoyed this chapter. The one-sided NaruSasu won't happen or be er revealed until later. If you hate boy x boy then I'm sorry but I can reassure you that the main pairing will be SasuSaku I think.**

**Check out my other SasuSaku story. Sometimes It's Just Not Enough!**

**Please review and give me feedback, I need to know if I should continue with this! Thank youuuu.**


	2. I'm Gonna Love You

**A/N: Hello! Well, I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. I'm sorry for any errors in it.**

**Sorry for the late update, this chapter was hard to write. I hope you enjoy it! Please review, I love and read all my reviews!**

**This is a SasuSaku story mainly, it has a one sided NaruSasu that wasn't introduced yet. Unless of course the readers would rather have it end up NaruSasu then I can have it that way. Review and tell me which pairing you'd rather have.**

**Also, I need some ideas of other pairings other than SasuSaku and NaruSasu.**

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In Any Other World

Chapter 1

I'm Gonna Love You.

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Sasuke Uchiha made a slow recovery and it wasn't until a month and a half that he was practically back to his normal self. His chakra was abnormally low and wasn't likely to heal for a while so he would be restricted to little missions if any at all.

Shizune came to Naruto and Sasuke's door and escorted them down to the Hokage tower for a meeting with Tsunade. The two sat in chairs in front of the hokage's desk. "Well, Sasuke you've finally recovered, except for your chakra. But at any rate you will be allowed to start your punishment. Well, you've lost a lot of fame and respect from many village members, so you must try your hardest to gain it back. So, here's what you have to do-" But she was interrupted by the door opening to reveal Umino Iruka.

Naruto's face grew into a huge grin and screeched, "Iruka-sensei!" The older brown haired ninja nervously smiled back and stood next to Sasuke, bowing politely to Tsunade.

"Just in time Iruka, I was just about to explain the circumstances to them," Tsunade welcomed Iruka, and gestured to him to pull up a seat. "Now Sasuke. You will assist Iruka with his classes." Sasuke's face painfully contorted into surprise, Sasuke was definitely not good with children. Sasuke's thoughts of children included annoying, loud, and obnoxious. Tsunade chuckled quietly at his face, "Yes, you will help him with teaching them until I feel you can go on to the next step."

Naruto looked in disbelief. Of course Naruto wouldn't have found working with Iruka, who has been a father-like model for him since he was a kid, much like a punishment. He glanced at Sasuke and almost burst out in laughter at his horrorstricken face.

"You will start immediately tomorrow. Iruka will explain everything to you. You are all dismissed." The three ninjas left the office and immediately departed from each other. Naruto and Sasuke were on their way out of the tower when they ran into Sakura who was just coming in to start her day as a medic-nin.

"Oh, hey guys!" Sakura exclaimed excitedly, things between the three had gotten a lot more normal. They spent a lot of days training with each other, yet they haven't seen a whole lot of Sai lately. "Naruto, you should take Sasuke-kun shopping for new clothes since he's going to be teaching," Sakura suggested while Sasuke simply glared at her. The heir to the Uchiha clan absolutely detested being treated like a dog, but Naruto reminded him that he deserved it all the time.

So the two of them spent the day going around shopping for Sasuke with plenty of arguments and abuse. The shorter blond male was trying to talk the older one into buying an obnoxiously bright orange shirt; Sasuke scowled and growled, "I refuse to wear anything that is _that_ disgusting color, dobe. It's horrid." Naruto simply muttered under his breath and put the shirt back.

The two agreed on that an outfit similar to Sasuke's when he was 12 would work so they picked out a shirt with a large collar on it and a pair of shorts on it for around the town. Then for teaching they picked out an outfit very much like Kakashi-sensei's. The two got home and immediately plopped down on the couch exhaustedly.

Short moments after they got home they heard a knock on the door and Naruto got up and opened the door to reveal Sakura as usual. "Hey guys, I brought you guys dinner!" In her hands clutched a bag with 6 containers of ramen from Ichiraku's for them, "This time I brought you enough," she nodded towards Naruto.

The three of them sat at the table eating their ramen, Sakura and Sasuke each had one but Naruto ate the rest. "So, Sasuke-kun, are you looking forward to helping Iruka?" Sakura questioned, already guessing the answer.

The quiet ebon haired male stared into his empty ramen bowl, "Hn…Sure." He emotionlessly replied, anyone could tell he wasn't anywhere near excited or content with being with little children for hours.

The morning came sooner than Sasuke could have ever hoped and walked to the school with Iruka. "Good morning, Sasuke," Iruka politely said. The problem really wasn't Iruka, Sasuke had spent countless times over at Iruka's with Naruto, it was those kids. Knowing them, they'd say something stupid to their parents and he'd get kicked out of the village. Sasuke was never good with kids; it just wasn't in his blood.

"Good morning everyone! Uchiha Sasuke has more than willingly accepted to help me with class! Please welcome him nicely," Iruka announced as everyone got there and sat down. Sasuke noticed some of the girls blushed and many of the boys glared, whatever he expected wasn't this. But nonetheless, he got a big, "Welcome Sasuke-sensei!" from all of them.

Sasuke weakly offered a smile back, "Good morning…" His voice was hesitant and soft. Immediately a hand shot up from a little boy who looked extremely excited to meet _the_ Uchiha Sasuke. "Uh…Yes?" Sasuke called on the boy, not sure what to expect from the boy.

"Uhm, Sasuke-sensei…Is it true you're living with that monster?!" The boy exclaimed, both Iruka and Sasuke's eyes widened. The whole class grew silent and just sat there in complete shock at the question. The boy obviously overheard their parents referring to Naruto as 'the monster'. Iruka was about to scold the boy when Sasuke interrupted.

He glared, mentally knowing it wasn't a good idea to glare at little children, "I don't know where you heard I live with a monster," which was a lie because he did in fact know where the kid learned this, "But, I assure you, the person I'm living with is not a monster, I have never seen a monster in this village." Sasuke's voice was stern and offended, "Any other questions?"

"Yes…Was it true that they tried to destroy the Uchiha Manor?" The boy asked curiously, Sasuke just stared back in complete shock. His eyes grew wide and remained silent. Iruka yelled at him and gave him detention for being rude to the new teacher and had to do extra laps. Throughout the entire lesson Sasuke couldn't shake the Uchiha Manor out of his mind; the truth was he really didn't know that they tried to destroy it. He hadn't even thought about it in the months that he's been here.

Iruka sent apprehensive looks at Sasuke as if he was a bomb ready to go off. At the end of the class when Naruto came to see how it went, Iruka pulled him aside and in a urgent voice whispered, "Sasuke found out that their going to try to destroy the Uchiha Manor, keep an eye on him." The younger boy worriedly nodded and left with the Uchiha home.

"So how was your first day?" Naruto timidly asked, hoping Sasuke would talk to him about it. Sasuke plopped himself on the couch and picked up a book grumpily and scowled at the blond.

"Just great…" He mumbled under his breath, idly reading the book. The younger boy's eye brow rose curiously and reached over and grabbed the book from the raven's hair. "Give that back dobe!" He growled out.

"I didn't know you liked to read teme!" Naruto exclaimed, and held it out of the other boy's reach. "But, I'll give it back to you if you tell me what happened today." Sasuke gave him a deadly glare and got up and went to his room and slammed his door shut. Naruto winced slightly; he dropped the book onto the coffee table gently.

It was two hours and Sasuke still was brooding in his room, Naruto sent cautious glances at the door. The blond always felt guilty that he had to get rid of the windows from Sasuke's room on order of the Village Council. They had to treat the raven as if he was dieing to get out of Konoha and would hop out any escape he could see.

The young blond decided to make supper of curry for them. On some days Sakura would come to cook for them but when she had work at the hospital Naruto would cook. He had learned from Iruka over the past couple of weeks on how to cook ever since Sasuke has insulted his cooking abilities several times.

A half hour later when the curry was served at the table Naruto loudly banged on Sasuke's door, "Teme, dinner's ready!" And without waiting for a reply he slowly opened the door and saw that Sasuke had fallen asleep on his bed. Walking over to the raven haired boy he poked him into consciousness. "Temeeeee," the blond whined, "I'm hungry wake up!"

"I'm awake," Sasuke muttered, Naruto lead him to the dinner table. They began to eat while Naruto gave apprehensive glances towards Sasuke now and then. Sasuke had been acting extremely different than normal; he usually wasn't as agitated as he was. Of course he was always cold and distant, but he got better in the months and now he was back to being his old hateful self. The blond could get the other male to smile at least once a day but he was so miserable right now.

Naruto knew that Sasuke would eventually find out about the Village Council wanting to burn down the Uchiha Manor, thinking that Sasuke wouldn't come back to the village, but he never imagined he'd act like this. The blond looked out the window and exclaimed loudly, "Woah, it's raining!" No sooner had the words slipped out of his mouth than a flash of lightning accompanied by thunder occurred.

The two decided to go to bed earlier than usual without training at all that day, Sasuke avoided talking to the blond at all so they found no need staying awake. Though, Sasuke didn't sleep at all he simply stared at the ceiling clenching his fists tensely.

It was almost midnight when Naruto woke up to a loud sound of thunder right out of his window. He immediately sat up and noticed a chill of air coming in the room, he looked at the window and noticed it open. A feeling of panic swept into his stomach, he never slept with his window opened. The panic-stricken blond stumbled into Sasuke's room, immediately he fell to his knees weakly as he saw the empty bed, "That bastard!" He cried out.

Naruto quickly got his clothes on and grabbed his things. He ran out of the house, not sure where to go. Then a voice caught in his mind _Sasuke found out that their going to try to destroy the Uchiha Manor, keep an eye on him._ 'Damn, how could I have been so stupid?' He thought.

Naruto sprinted towards the Uchiha Manor, he looked around for a sign of anyone at all and noticed a convenient store was open. He walked in quickly and looked at the cashier; "Did you see Uchiha Sasuke come by?" his voice shaky with anticipation.

The cashier nodded, "Well…There _was_ a man here who bought a lighter and a bottle of alcohol." Naruto's eyes widened in shock and without one more word to the man he turned on his heels and ran out. He looked in the direction of the manor and noticed smoke coming from the roof. He loudly cursed and went back to sprinting until he heard a voice calling after him.

"Naruto! Naruto, where are you going?! It's storming out here, you'll get hurt." Naruto turned around and saw Sakura chasing after him; he hadn't even noticed that his clothes were soaked straight through.

"Go get Tsunade, right now! Sasuke is in the Uchiha Manor and he's burning it down but if you tell her that he'll be banned from this village. Just tell her that it's on fire and I'll be able to make up a story when she gets there!" Without any further questioning they left in separate ways.

In what seemed like forever Naruto finally arrived at the burning manor, "Sasuke!" He screamed out, he ran through the whole house until he ran across the deck and got to a large double door. He grabbed the handles and whipped the doors open.

The blond coughed loudly and almost passed out as his face was greeted with a huge cloud of smoke. He covered his mouth and looked around for Sasuke, he was hunched over in a corner passed out. Naruto quickly grabbed the unconscious teen and heaved him outside and into the yard near a pond and splashed the water onto him. "Sasuke!" He repeated over and over again trying to bring him back into consciousness.

Sasuke's emotionless eyes opened and stared right into Naruto's. In a blink of an eye, Naruto was over the raven and sent a punch right into collision with his face. "Bastard! You were almost free until you had to pull a stunt like this, what were you thinking?! We worked so hard to get you back here and now you blew it, you could have died!"

Blue eyes stared straight into sad black ones. Naruto was about to go on with his rant until he noticed that a tear slid down Sasuke's face. "S-sasuke?" The blond was taken by surprised, never in all these years of knowing the boy had he seen him cry.

"They were going to destroy it…" The raven was shaking and drenched from the rain and before he got to finish he passed out and slipped into unconsciousness.

Out of no where Naruto was grabbed by the back of his collar and shoved off Sasuke. The two of them were taken to the hospital where they got Naruto dried and Sasuke taken care of.

Naruto and Sakura sat next to Sasuke's hospital bed, "Naruto…We need a story to cover up for Sasuke. I'll tell them that lightning struck it while Sasuke was there. Okay?" The blond simply nodded.

Sakura walked out of the room and heard the mumbles of voices outside the door. The two teenage boys sat in awkward silence, thoughts of Sasuke getting banned from the village floating through both of their minds.

Without warning the door was whipped open, "Okay. You two are free to go after your final check up, without punishment," Tsunade announced though she still gave suspicious looks to the two. "Sakura will just heal that nasty cut on your face, Sasuke. Naruto you need to go eat something, come back in an hour when Sasuke is ready to come home."

Sakura pulled up a chair next to Sasuke's bed as the two others left the room. "You're really lucky Naruto stood up for you, you'd be gone if he hadn't," Sakura lightly scolded. He responded with a slight, "Hn" but there was proof in his facial expression he was thinking over it in his mind.

"Look here Sasuke-kun," Sakura demanded quietly, she raised her hands and cupped the side of his face, letting her chakra leak out in order to heal the wound. She was concentrating so much on her chakra she didn't notice how they shifted closer together.

Out of the blue, Sakura noticed how close their faces were and red started to appear on her cheeks. Without thinking the two closed the gap between them, the kiss was inexperienced and awkward and timidly Sakura moved her lips against Sasuke's gently. Sasuke surprisingly kissed back, he moved his hand to her waist. After a few moments into the kiss however, the two ended the kiss.

Sakura wasn't sure if she regretted kissing him or if she wanted to do it again as awkward silence set in once more. Though all thoughts of regret seemed to disappear as Sasuke leaned in for another kiss this time he reached up and took her hands in his. Suddenly Sakura realized where she was and that someone could walk in at this very moment, she pulled away abruptly and her cheeks flared an extraordinary crimson color. The pink haired girl wasn't quite sure what to do so she did the only thing that came to her mind as she panicked. She ran.

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**A/N: I hope you liked this chapter…I didn't think it was that great. But please tell me what you think! **

**Read and Review!**


	3. It's Too Cliché I Won't Say I'm in Love

**A/N: Bahh! I'm so sorry for this being so late, I have no excuse whatsoever. I was just too lazy and couldn't think of how to put this chapter together…But now I have a good idea. **

**And if any of the readers who read my story "Sometimes It's Just Not Enough" are wondering (which I really doubt) I'll update that as soon as I can, I wanted to get this story moving a long. **

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**Green Pinguin Queen – Haha, yeah I usually get some kind of weird threat warnings. I'm used to it.**

**Oo-Chica-chan-oO – No both sided Naru x Sasu then? Well, I doubt it'll END like that but there is no doubt about one-sided Naru x Sasu. I hope you enjoy nonetheless! **

**Thank you for reviewing Oo-Chica-chan-oO, Green Pinguin Queen, and Sennyuu Megami SO MUCH! I love reviewers so much!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto…

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In Any Other World

Chapter 2

It's Too Cliché I Won't Say I'm in Love

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She ran. 

Well at least that's what Sakura would've done if this was a dramatic romance movie, but alas to much of her displeasure and embarrassment it is not. She would have done just that if she had a legit excuse to get out of there but as the pink haired girl was assigned Sasuke as a patient she couldn't think of any.

Once Sakura gazed up into the ebony eyes of her teammate a shiver went down her spine. She abruptly stood up from her seat, her mind determined to get out of the room and hide from those eyes as quickly as possible, smiled politely as if nothing had just happened, "W-…Well let's get on with the check up I guess." She stuttered. The female hastily went through the regular check up procedures until to much relief she was able to stumble her way with a flushed face to the door with the last words of, "I'll let Tsunade-sama know the check up is done and you'll be able to leave," hang through the air as she left the raven haired teenager a lone to himself.

Sakura burst into Tsunade's office and before the Hokage could get the words 'My, that was fast, Sakura!' out of her mouth Sakura practically shouted, "Sasuke is ready to go home," turned on her heels and stormed out of the hospital.

The young pink haired teen made her way home careful not to run into anyone she knew. She practically burst down the door in her haste and startled her mom half to death. "Sakura, why are you home so early?" The pale fragile face of her mother was spread with worry, which was enough to calm Sakura down.

"Oh…I just decided to get home early; I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I'm sorry for scaring you." Without another word she sprinted up the stairs and out the door and sat on the railing of the porch in thought.

Sakura looked down at the streets in thought, biting at her lip as she tried to gather her scattered emotions. In any normal situation she would have been ecstatic that Sasuke had shown her any affection yet alone kiss her, and she honestly was.

_…Honestly, I'm happy. Sasuke has finally returned some sort of affection that I've been giving for the past years. But…love isn't supposed to be this simple is it? In all the books I've read the two always have to struggle with their feelings before even getting the courage to tell the other but yet a little less than an hour ago Sasuke showed his feelings without hesitation. And those eyes…_

Once more a shiver was spread through out Sakura's body as she remembered the constricting gaze of the Uchiha. She clutched at the railing, remembering the reason she left so abruptly.

_I know I have been getting these feelings for him again and that kiss showed me it's possible they aren't like my old ones, and I could have easily told these mixed feelings to him but when I looked into his eyes it was like I was suffocated…Those eyes felt like they could see right through me and it scared me. The thought that he could see into the depths of my fear and emotions was too much for me._

The confused adolescent's thoughts were scattered when she heard Ino's voice shout from below, "Sakura! What are you doing, you're going to fall!"

Sakura jumped in surprise and looked down at Ino, "I find that extremely insulting, Ino. I'm a kunoichi after all; I find it highly unlikely that I would fall from here!" I retorted. The blonde simply shrugged her shoulders and motioned for her to come down.

"Sakura, everyone is gathering for BBQ tomorrow night, you should come too. I invited everyone," Ino said enthusiastically when Sakura came down to see what's up. Sakura immediately knew who 'everyone' consisted of, after Sasuke left the group of rookies started to spend more time training together and became closer friends, if possible.

Sakura thought for a minute, she wasn't sure if she would like to face Sasuke about the events of today that soon. I might as well get it over with. "Oh, sure I'll go. It's the 19th of March tomorrow, right?" The date struck a bell; Sakura snapped her fingers in realization and excitement. The 19th of March was the date Temari was going to come to visit Konoha. "Temari is coming tomorrow! Let's invite her too!"

Ino looked a bit taken aback by this, there was a hint of reluctance in her face but she instantly hid it and nodded, "Okay!"

**Back with Sasuke**

Sasuke seemed unfazed by his teammates frantic actions, well actually he didn't even have time to think about it since Shizune entered his room followed by Naruto. "Well, you are free to go Uchiha-san. Naruto will take you home and you're free from teaching duties for the rest of the week."

The two boys stepped into their house and sighed in relief as the warmth of the heater greeted them. "Oh, Sasuke, do you want to go down and get BBQ with everyone tomorrow? Ino invited us!" Naruto said eagerly.

The raven haired ninja just simply shrugged impassively, "Sure. I don't really have a choice do I?" The kyuubi holder just grinned mischievously and shook his head and bounced off shouting something about ramen as he went.

The doorbell unexpectedly ring and Sasuke cursed under his breath, "What the hell, we just got home!" He snarled as he opened the door and there stood Shikamaru at the door. "Yes?" The raven muttered.

Shikamaru simply sidestepped the Uchiha with his hands in his pockets calmly, "Where's Naruto?" He asked looking around the house; the other boy slammed the door shut moodily and slipped off into the kitchen.

A minute later Naruto energetically bounced into the room with a rather grumpy looking Sasuke in tow. "Sorry about him, Shikamaru. He gets moody when he gets back from check ups." He patted Sasuke half heartedly on the shoulder, who simply just shrugged the hand off and leaned against the nearest wall. "Sasuke, can you go make some tea please?" The boy simply raised an eyebrow questioningly and walked off into the kitchen surprisingly listening to the orders.

The Uchiha left Shikamaru and Naruto sitting on the couch, "So what's up?" The energetic blond asked. The lazier one of the two hesitated for a minute before explaining to him.

"Well I just decided to come and see what was up. Since when has he ever been anywhere near compliant?" Shikamaru asked and turned his face in the direction of where Sasuke was. Naruto just made a confused face at him.

"What do you mean?"

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. Are you going to the BBQ tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I think so. Temari is coming too right?" Naruto questioned with a mischievous looking smirk on his face. Half the citizens in the village could guess that Temari and Shikamaru had a…_thing _for each other, neither willing to even admit yet alone acknowledge the feelings.

A light red dusted the brown haired boy's face, "I think so," failing horridly at trying to act like he didn't care at all. Naruto let out a snort of laughter.

"Oh, Shikamaru, you should try asking her to go to the festival with you. She'll be in the village for a week, right?"

"I don't know…She'll probably want to go with someone else," Shikamaru said. He muttered under his breath, "Festivals are so troublesome…" Naruto broke back into laughter at what he said.

"Shikamaru, both you _and_ I know that Temari has no one else to go with. Plus, I'm sure the Council will be ecstatic you are taking someone who has that much power in Suna to the festival of _Konoha." _Naruto said darkly.

Shikamaru made a strange lazy "tching" noise, "Well, are _you _inviting a girl to the festival?"

It was Naruto's turn for his face to turn into a dark red scarlet, he started to stammer, "U-uh…W-well…No, I don't think so." His friend looked at him questioningly, clearly not expecting this as his reply. "The p-person I would like to ask…Well, h-…SHE! …She doesn't like me back so there's no point in asking really!" By the time the sentence was out Shikamaru looked at him suspiciously.

Naruto pretended to look at his watch as if it was extremely too late for his friend to be in his house, "WOW! Look at the time, Shikamaru you better leave it's getting late!" The blond grabbed his best friend's arm and dragged him to the door and pushed him out. "See you later!"

"What about my tea?" Shikamaru demanded.

"What?! Tea parties are for little girls!" Naruto hurriedly said in a panic to get the guy off his property.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and began walking down the sidewalk, "I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto." Naruto simply watched him walk away in relief.

"Well, that was interesting." Naruto visibly winced as he heard the Uchiha's voice from behind him. The red color that was fading came back full blast in the blond's face. He would have done anything just to crawl in a hole and hide there than face his best friend. "I made this tea for nothing then, I assume. And you know, Naruto, offering guests tea is _manners_. Not 'tea parties for little girls' as you so bluntly put it, dobe."

Naruto turned around to be greeted with Sasuke's full blown smirk. The blond scowled, "I don't want to be scolded about manners by you, _teme,_" the blush immediately fading away.

After one of their heated arguments they sat down on the couch drinking their team talking about what kind of missions they will do once Sasuke is off his punishment. Somehow their conversation led to the upcoming Festival.

"Why _did_ you rush Shikamaru out after he asked you if you were asking someone to go with you?" Sasuke asked curiously, Naruto could feel his face burning until he realized that he shouldn't have been around when Shikamaru asked him.

"How did YOU know about that? You eavesdropping bastard!" Naruto shrieked and pointed an accusing finger at the Uchiha.

Sasuke simply smirked at him, "I kind of live here and the kitchen is merely a wall away. It was kind of hard not to hear."

"Liar…But anyway, are _you_ asking someone?" Naruto asked slightly timidly. Sasuke took a sip of his tea to give him extra time to think about it.

"Why? Interested?" Sasuke smirked arrogantly, the blond felt the familiar sensation of his face burning embarrassingly.

Naruto shook his head and rolled his eyes, "You wish. I was only curious teme." Sasuke gave a small laugh at the blond.

"Well, no. I'm sure much to your delight, I do not have any interest in asking someone to go to the festival," Sasuke smirked as he made fun of his best friend. He received a slap in the back of his head for the comment, though he didn't regret it.

**Next Day at BBQ**

Sakura arrived at the BBQ late as usual and as soon as she entered the door she heard a familiar, "SAKURA-CHAN!" yelled from Lee. A faint blush rose to her face and she walked up to the table. "Hey everyone!" Sakura exclaimed and her blush grew when she had to take a seat next to Sasuke.

Sakura looked around at all her friends happily, but looked surprise when she saw Kakashi, Asuma, Yamato, and Iruka sitting at the table. "Whoa, what are you doing here? Whenever we ask you guys to join us you make up excuses!"

Kakashi chuckled quietly and said, "Ah, well I guess we were out of excuses. And I wanted to let you all know that you _all_ have off on the day of the Festival so you can enjoy the festivities!" Sakura squealed excitedly and began to chat animatedly with Tenten.

Naruto sent Shikamaru and Temari a grin, yet Ino had a slightly worried expression on her face. The blond noticed and questioned, "Ne, Ino what's wrong?" The girl hastily shook her head her hair whipping Choji in the face, who started to choke on his steak. Ino thumped Chouji on the back a couple of times until the piece of meat passed down into his stomach.

"Nothing is wrong, I was just thinking that's all," Ino said with a false cheery voice. Shrugging her shoulders carelessly. "Sorry, Chouji!"

Sakura cautiously looked at Lee, who looked as if he might explode into one of his 'youthfulness' lectures, hoping that he would not ask her to go to the festival. Tenten sent him a reproachful look which didn't seem to faze him at all. "SAKURA-CHAN WILL YOU GO TO THE FESTIVAL WITH ME?"

Sakura's eyes widened in embarrassment and she could feel that her cheeks were as pink as her hair. The whole restaurant decided to turn silent at that exact time. She could tell the Lee was just as embarrassed as her. The kunoichi felt Sasuke twitch and she looked at him; he was currently glaring at his napkin. She smiled apologetically, "Lee-san...I can't, I'm sorry!" Lee simply frowned disappointedly and nodded.

The conversations started up again and the embarrassment died down, even Neji and Hinata loosened up a bit. It felt nice to be able to just sit back and relax like this and it make Sakura forget about her mixed feelings.

It wasn't until it got dark that they decided that they better go home. Near the end Sasuke pulled Sakura by the hand aside from everyone else. "Sakura…Will you go to the festival with me?" He was acting like nothing happened yesterday morning; Sakura had to admit she was hoping for a confession. A look of disappointment flashed across her face.

"Oh! Sure, I'll meet you at your house then…" Sakura said quietly, silence filled the air as she looked up waiting for him to say something. She wasn't sure why but the silence and the lack of confession made tears threaten to fall, "Well, I need to get home, my mom is waiting."

Sakura began to hurriedly walk away until Sasuke grabbed her shoulder and pulled her around and kissed her on the lips for the second time in two days. The kunoichi couldn't suppress the tears that were falling from her eyes. The raven haired boy pulled away and was shocked by the tears; he raised his hands and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. "I'm sorry, Sakura."

Sakura's eyes widened, shocked by the apology. She expected to wake up in her bed any moment now, this all started to become way to cliché for her liking. "Sasuke-kun…I-I…I love you."

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**Well, I've spent the most time on this chapter than any other chapters in my two stories I think. I'm proud of the content but I don't think I'm happy about the length at all. I was expecting this to be the most lengthy chapter I have written yet, but I've gotten to the end of the chapter and I'm happy with it and I don't think I can change the ending even if it's extremely cliché I'm quite happy with this chapter!**

**I have the next chapter all planned out and it will be done rather quickly I think!**

**Okay, I'm sorry about ANY grammar/punctuation/etc. mistakes that you find. This story is completely unbetaed, which leaves me to search and reread the story a thousand times for mistakes and I don't do such a great job. So if you're interested e-mail me. **

**I must admit I love how when Tsunade comes up in the grammar check it always tries to make me change the name into Sundae…Lovely.**

**ANYHOW! Reviewers, let me know if you'd rather have Shikamaru and Temari together or Shikamaru and Ino! I have a plan but I'd like to see what my readers think. Thanks!**

**The more you review the faster I'll update! Thank you to all my readers!**

**R&R!**

**I hope you liked it!**


	4. Hospitals, Kimonos, Ferris Wheels

**A/N: Hey everyone. This is updated sooner than I thought. I decided to put my other story on hold, I have no clue what to do with that story anymore to be honest and I'll be working on this one while I think about it.**

**Wow, I'd like to thank all the reviewers! I was surprised at the amount of hits and everything.**

**I'm sorry for any grammatical, spelling, or any other types of errors in this story. This story is so far beta-less, though I try to search out any spelling mistakes I can I horridly fail at it.**

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**Steveo 352- Yes, Naruto is. Well at least in my story. Sorry if I haven't made that clear enough. Sasuke however is not.**

**SakuraUchiha101- Oh, wow thanks. Well I've taken your advice and decided to put some Anko into the story. I hope you like it. **

**Sennyu Megami- Hmm. I like the idea of ShikaTema too, well we'll see!**

**Warnings: Rare cursing, one sided boy x boy.**

**I hope you like this longer chapter!**

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In Any Other World

Chapter 3

Hospitals, Kimonos, Ferris Wheels.

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"_Sasuke-kun…I-I…I love you."_

In a perfect world that is what Sakura would have said on the night Uchiha Sasuke asked her to go to the festival with him, and as the world the two are living in is in war and chaos, the world is far from perfection.

So instead of the words, "Sasuke-kun I love you" falling from Sakura's mouth, the words she wanted to say were replaced by, "Sasuke-kun I can't wait to go to the festival with you." which was a very lame thing of her to say.

For a brief moment a look of great surprise fluttered across the usually stoic Uchiha's face. "Oh, hai. Well, I-" but just as he began to continue the loud voice of their teammate interrupted.

"Sasuke-teme, let's go I want to go home!" Naruto screeched from up a head of the two. Sakura simply gave a sheepish smile.

The two reluctantly said goodbye and Sakura stood and watched the figures of her teammates disappear into the darkness. The pink haired kunoichi hugged her scarf around her neck more securely and began to walk off in the opposite direction of her house. She ended up near the academy and sat down on the swing that years ago you could've caught a glimpse of Naruto on all alone.

Sakura sniffed, her nose becoming uncomfortably runny in the cold air of winter. Spring should've been coming but the coldness of winter still hasn't left yet. She stiffly rocked back and forth on the swing for a few moments until she noticed a dark figure coming out of the academy. Her hold on the swing tightened as she became fully aware of how dark it truly is at night.

The figure appeared to have gone off somewhere else, that is until a hand reached out of nowhere and grabbed her shoulder. "Haruno-san?" A familiar voice called out. The sudden action surprised Sakura so much she fell backwards off her swing in a heap. "Sorry! It's Anko."

Sakura heaved a sigh in relief, "Thank goodness! You scared me, I'm sorry I didn't see you!" She politely bowed to the older woman who simply just shook her head in reply.

"What are you doing out here?" Anko asked curiously, arching an eyebrow at the young kunoichi.

"Oh, just thinking…Though it's getting really cold out. I think it's going to snow soon." Sakura jammed her hands into her pockets self consciously, the girl was normally shy when it came to talking to older people she wasn't normally around.

"Oh, here let's go back to my apartment a bit, it's really close."

Anko guided the pink haired teen to a huge apartment building. Sakura stopped in her tracks in awe, "You live here?!" The older woman smiled slightly her hand giving Sakura a light push to get her walking towards the apartment. They took four flights of stairs to get to the apartment where Anko lived in.

Anko slipped the door open and slid her shoes off. "I'll take your coat, Sakura," Anko said as Sakura began to take her boots and outerwear off. "Take a seat on the couch I'll make us some tea."

"Hai," Sakura simply replied. She walked over to the couch in the living room. She looked around at the apartment; it was simple with a book case, television set, a desk, and a variety of other things. '_This is an expensive apartment for someone who lives alone…'_ Sakura thought to herself, there were two other doors. One where Anko left to the kitchen the other, Sakura guessed, was her bedroom.

A couple minutes later Anko came out of the kitchen carrying a tray of tea and sat it on the coffee table in front of Sakura, there was a plate of cookies on the tray as well. "Dig in, Kakashi actually sent me the cookies. He's actually quite a good cook, who knew." She stated matter-of-factly, Sakura however could not grasp onto the fact that Kakashi actually cooked something and eyed at the cookies suspiciously. The older woman made her way to the curtains and dragged them open revealing the night sky which now had snowflakes slowly descending from it. "I already had one, their not poisoned," Anko teased as if reading her mind.

Anko took a seat next to Sakura, took a sip of tea quietly and they both relished in the comforting silence for a few moments. "So, are Sasuke and Naruto planning on trying for the Chuunin exam?" Anko questioned.

Sakura smiled to herself and shrugged her shoulders, "Probably, Naruto definitely will. I know he feels left out being the only one of us still being a Genin. But he still has his hands full with Sasuke-kun. Are you doing the exams again soon?"

Anko chuckled darkly, "I doubt it, well maybe next year. We'll have to see…" She looked around and took another sip of tea.

"Anko-san, if you don't mind me asking, aren't you ever lonely living alone? Have you ever, you know, wanted a husband?" Sakura timidly asked, looking at Anko.

Anko simply smiled, "I guess there was a time where I've wanted a husband." She looked down at the cup of tea in her hands in thought. "I guess I still do. I just don't think I'd be able to balance being a kunoichi and love at the same time." The woman grinned briefly, "I'm quite pathetic, choosing my career over love, not very romantic ne?"

Sakura just stared blankly at Anko for a moment, taking a bite out of a cookie. "Why can't you have a husband and still be a ninja? Shikamaru's dad is a ninja and he's married. I know plenty of people who are married and are ninjas."

"Well, that's difficult. I won't have time to care for the one I love if I want to be a great kunoichi. Look at Tsunade-sama, she isn't married and she turned out to be one of the greatest kunoichis of all time. It's practically a proven fact that if you are striving to find love, being a kunoichi will set you back from that dream. It's actually melancholic for me to go around Konoha and hearing young teen's dreams of becoming greater ninjas, only to find out their dreams will be shattered by love, though they won't know it.

"When you're young it seems extremely easy to balance love and being a ninja. I don't think I want to be burdened by that, no matter how many times I have found myself in love with someone. I don't want to lose my gift as a kunoichi. If I can stay a kunoichi, I can protect the ones I love without them worrying about me." There was a moment of silence as Sakura sucked all this information in her brain.

"But isn't that lonely?" Sakura asked, her voice now quiet and soft almost a whisper.

"Well, it's okay. I have friends, love can't be the only meaning to life can it? Well it's getting late, I'll walk you home, you're mom is probably worried sick!" Anko grinned sheepishly, Sakura stared in wonder. That was the first time the teen has ever seen her remotely serious.

"Oh, yeah," was Sakura's simple response. The two made their way to the door and slipped on their coats and scarves. As they stepped out into the night they both audibly gasped. "Woah, it feels like it dropped 20 degrees!"

The two made their slow miserable way to the Haruno residence, when they finally reached their destination the two said farewell and Sakura entered her house. The house lights were off as Sakura checked the time to see it was 9:30. "I'm home!" Sakura yelled to the seemingly empty house.

As she entered the living room an eerie feeling spread through out her and when she looked on the couch she understood why. "Mom?!" Sakura screeched as she ran up to the delicate woman that looked as if she collapsed on the couch. The pink haired girl quickly checked her mother's pulse and as soon as she found the heart beat she sprinted out of the door with her mother draped in blankets.

**The Next Day at the Hospital**

Sakura was sitting next to her mother's hospital bed; the delicate woman was still in her peaceful sleep. The door opened and Tsunade peered in, "Sakura? Your mother is alright. She has a weak heart as you already know. She can't do any strenuous activities or she'll pass out. She'll need to stay at the hospital for a while, I'm not sure how long yet. We need to get her health up." The kunoichi solemnly stared at the fragile face of her mother and simply nodded.

A few seconds later the older woman's eyes fluttered open and she looked around. "Where am I? Oh, honey, what happened? I remember cleaning and then a loud noise but that's it!" Sakura loudly sighed in relief and loosely hugged her.

"You passed out, but you'll be alright. You'll have to stay in the hospital for awhile though." Sakura smiled reassuringly at her mom.

"Oh, I can't leave you alone at the house though!" Her mother exasperatedly spoke, a look of terror and shame crossed her face.

"I'll be fine at our house alone, I'm going to be eighteen in eight days. Plus, it's almost time for me to get my own house, ne?" Sakura gently took a comb from the bag she took over and gently combed through her mother's own silky cherry blossom hair.

There was a twinge in Sakura's heart as her mother's face contorted into sadness at the aspect of her daughter leaving her home. "I know, but I would still feel better if you stayed with a friend. I worry about you, Sakura."

"I'm sorry. Let's see," Sakura said as normally in her cheery voice as she could manage, putting a finger to her chin in thought. "I could ask if I could stay at Ino's place…But I don't want to intrude in-" They were interrupted as the door slid open to reveal Anko. "Anko-san?"

"Gomen! Did I intrude?" Anko asked as she rubbed at her nose as if there was dirt there. "I just heard about Ayumi-san and I had to come see her." The young woman bowed politely, "I couldn't help but overhear," She went on as if it was okay to barge into ones conversation, "I wouldn't mind if Sakura slept over at my house, I have more than enough room."

Before Sakura could reject the idea Ayumi cut in, "Anko, you're a life saver thank you so much!"

Anko waved off the gratitude, "It's the least I could do. Though, I'll probably be off on missions during the day and I think I might have an over night one to do. But, she'll be fine."

Just like that Sakura was taken into Anko's care for the amount of time her mother was in the hospital. The two stopped by Sakura's house to grab a few of her belongings and brought them to Anko's house lying beside her closet. "Whew. Oh yeah, Tsunade wanted you to know you have off until after the Festival which is in 2 days. Oh, do you need to borrow one of my kimonos or do you have one?"

"Oh right, no I think I'll just stop by my house and borrow one of my mother's old ones." Sakura replied, as she walked over to Anko and helped her set up a futon for her.

**With Sasuke and Naruto**

"Sasuke, let's go get some ramen." Naruto groaned as his stomach audibly growled, he clutched his hands across his torso hungrily.

"Dobe, we just started training. Do you think about anything else but food?" Sasuke sneered angrily.

Naruto groaned and fell into a sitting position, "Shut up, Teme. I forgot to eat breakfast this morning! Now, let's go get some ramen. We'll train later."

Yet the Uchiha simply sent a death glare towards Naruto, "I refuse to eat that repulsive slimy food. You really need to learn how to eat healthier for once in your life."

Naruto stayed silent for a few moments as if considering eating healthier but then he simply shrugged his shoulders. "That can wait, I want ramen!" The Uchiha rolled his eyes as he followed the blond out of the training grounds and to Ichiraku's.

The two ordered two bowls of ramen once they got there. Naruto immediately began to dig in while Sasuke sat in silence glaring at his food in distaste. "Oi, are you gonna eat that?" Naruto asked with a mouthful of ramen, Sasuke moodily pushed the bowl towards his teammate and leant against the counter turning his back towards the workers. The raven haired ninja closed his eyes as he tried to block out the irritating noise of the blond slurping down noodles like there's no tomorrow.

There was an alarming screech and the sound of a bowl that just got tipped over out of nowhere. "What the-" Sasuke began until he saw an interesting sight. Temari snuck up behind Naruto and quickly grabbed him into a headlock, while Shikamaru stood several feet behind with his hands in his pockets impassive as ever.

"BLONDIE!" Temari energetically yelled in his ear, Sasuke simply stared at the rather strange predicament his teammate was in. "Who are you inviting to the festival? I heard that Sasuke and Sakura are going together!" The workers at Ichiraku stared silently, half afraid and half amused at the girl from Suna.

Naruto managed to squirm himself out of her grip, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "Really? Oh, I don't know if I'm even going-" The rest of what he was about to say was cut off by a big slap in the back of his neck.

"OF COURSE YOU'RE GOING, BAKA!" Temari shrieked, though the whole time she scolded him she had her normal happy grin on her face. "_Everyone_ is going. The festival starts tonight but I guess you guys don't have off until two days from now. So you have 'till then to find a date, or well…You don't need a date I guess."

The noise got to Sasuke's nerves so he decided to distance himself as much as he could from the two rowdy teenagers and took a spot standing next to Shikamaru. "I've been forced to take Temari to help pick out a kimono for her to wear…I kept telling her that it's optional and she doesn't _have _to wear one but she insists. I hope she doesn't ask me to dress in traditional clothes, I'm going casual," He drawled out.

"Hn, I'm not either…" The raven simply said as the two watched Temari and Naruto making a scene. "I think we might need to intervene before Naruto is banned from Ichiraku for life though."

After they got the two split up they headed for the nearby park and they sat on a bench. "But seriously Naruto, you should ask someone." Temari calmly spoke.

"Nah, I'm not one for festivals, not up to the villagers gawking at me like I'm some sort of animal…" Naruto sighed out, slumping against the bench.

"They won't if you're with us. It'll be so much fun, there's going to be a Ferris wheel, and all of us girls are probably going to be wearing kimonos!" Temari squealed in delight, Shikamaru simply rolled his eyes.

"Why don't you ask Hinata?" Shikamaru asked lazily, as if he would rather be somewhere else than talking about the festival.

"I don't think she'd want to. But I guess I could try…" As Naruto said this, the jaws of his friends dropped. Everyone knows that Hinata looks up to Naruto and has had the biggest crush on him since they were in the academy.

"Trust me, Naruto, she'll say yes." Sasuke said.

"Well then, it's settled. Naruto you _will_ go and ask Hinata tonight. But now, we have to go shopping!" Shikamaru groaned a bit at this and gave a pleading look to Naruto who just simply shrugged.

"Wait, I don't want this teme there when I ask her though..." Naruto pointed accusingly at Sasuke who simply scowled at him.

"Oh, Naruto!" Temari glared at him and began to scold him again and slapped him on the back of his head once more, "You treat him as if you are his babysitter! You're horrid." Naruto whined at her, "Sasuke you can come with us, we're meeting up with Neji and Tenten." Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and left with Temari and Shikamaru, sending one last glare at Naruto.

With that Naruto made his way to the Hyuuga Manor, butterflies in his stomach. He walked through the yard and timidly knocked on the door. His nervousness was gone in a flash as the door opened and Hinata came out.

Hinata's face flushed into a bright red color as she saw him at her door, "G-good evening, Naruto-kun." She managed to stutter out.

"Hey, Hinata-chan! Do you have a moment?" Naruto asked in his usual hyper tone, bouncing on the heels of his foot. She nodded and led him into the huge living room in her house. He took a seat next to his dark haired friend and was about to continue talking until a man came in the room and leaned against the doorway. Naruto gasped. "O-oh, Hyuuga-san, good evening." Naruto spoke softly, the intimidating older man who Naruto knew as her father simply stared at him as if debating on whether to just kick him out or let him stay.

"Hello, Naruto-san." The older Hyuuga replied.

Hinata's blush grew, if even possible, and she bowed but when on as if nothing happened, "So what were you going to say Naruto-kun?" Naruto blinked at her, surprised at how much better she got with her stuttering.

"O-oh, I-I…" It seemed as though Hinata's stuttering suddenly vanished and was sent instead into Naruto. "W-well, I was wondering if you'd like to go to the Festival with me…" He straightened himself up nervously, waiting for the man to kick him out of the manor.

"I would love to," Hinata smiled at him and looked to the older man, "I-is t-that okay?" The man simply nodded, Naruto looked back and forth between the two uneasily.

"Oh okay, well I should really be getting home." Naruto said and Hinata led him out of the house, she gave him a hug before leaving back into the house with another full blown blush on her face.

Naruto bounced his way home energetically; he opened the door to his now empty house and yelled, "I'm hooome!"

**Once More With Sakura**

Sakura was drifting along the shops of Konoha, not quite sure of what to do with herself. She decided to head to her home and pick up things her mother would need at the hospital. She grabbed a bag and put some clothes and other necessities in it. Having rarely been in her mother's room, Sakura barely knew where to find anything. Once she had everything she noticed a trunk in the corner of the room.

The kunoichi approached it and lifted the lid open, she gazed down at the contents in wonder. She pulled out the contents and stared as she now had a handful of many beautifully made kimonos. She audibly gasped in awe and grabbed another bag and carefully put them in.

With the two heavy bags in her hands, Sakura made her way to the Hospital. She signed in and slid open the door that belonged to her mom. "Mom?" Sakura asked quietly incase she was asleep.

A frail soft voice replied, "Sakura? Is that you?" Sakura entered the room setting down the bag of clothes and sat in the chair next to Ayumi's bed leaving the one bag of kimonos resting in her lap.

"I've brought you some clothes for when you can change into them and some other stuff." Sakura brightly said, her fingers fidgeting with the handles of the bag, the girl stared at her mother in silence studying the delicate face and how frail her body was and wondered if she would ever get out of the hospital. "Oh, uhm…Well, I found your kimonos and I was wondering if I could borrow one for the festival in two days." Sakura timidly said.

To the kunoichi's surprise her mother's eyes filled with tears happily and she had a big smile on her face, "Of course, I would love that." Sakura stared quizzically into the bag of kimonos, wondering how that was a big deal but she pulled them out. The hand of her mother stretched out and grabbed a dark green one. It had different types of winter flowers going down the side. "This was my favorite one…Sakura, will you come see me before you go to the festival? I want to see which kimono you picked and how you look." Sakura simply nodded.

On the way out of the hospital Sakura decided to pop into Shizune's office. She knocked on the door and made her way to the seat in front of her desk. "Hello, Shizune-san."

"Oh, good evening Sakura!" Shizune responded giving her a polite smile, "What are you doing over here; you have off do you not?"

Sakura nodded, "Yes, but I was wondering. Is there any way I could help with people in rehab? You know, remember how Lee-kun couldn't walk but he wanted so badly to still be a ninja? I want to help those kinds of people. I'm willing to volunteer my free time for that." Sakura spoke in a determinedly stubborn voice, she wasn't quite sure why she wanted to do this but she felt she needed to. "I don't know why, but I _need _to do this. Maybe it's just from seeing my mom in the hospital, but I'm willing to do this."

Shizune smiled at her, "Sakura, that's very nice. I'm just worried you might get too stressed out with this. Helping with rehab takes a lot, emotionally and physically for you as well with the patient. You're willing to give up your free time but you hardly have enough free time as it is. With your hospital duties and training, I'm not sure if you'll manage to balance this." Shizune gave her a look of warning.

Sakura sighed to herself and ran a hand through her hair tiredly, "I know…What if I only come into rehab twice every week? Monday and Sunday, if it's only those two days I can do hospital duties, training, and rehab all in one day I can change my shift at the hospital to nights and I can do rehab in the morning? So it won't cut into my free time at all!"

Shizune chuckled at the determined girl, "Alright, you can do it. Oh, you can stop by tomorrow and help out, since you have extra free time, to meet a patient you can help."

Sakura hastily hugged Shizune, "Thank you so much! This means a lot to me, I can't wait to get started tomorrow!" And with that the pink haired teen left the hospital.

Sakura got to Anko's apartment and dropped the bag of kimonos on the futon. "I'm back, Anko-san!" She walked into the kitchen and found a note laying there addressed to her.

_Sakura, I'll be back at 6:30, I'll make you dinner when I get back. I'm sorry._

"Well, I should cook tonight. It's the least I could do for her, since she's letting me stay!" Sakura said to herself as she took out ingredients for a simple curry and beef recipe. It was almost 6:30 when the food was done so she set the table, she looked at all the food and noticed she should have made a dessert. "Hm, well I think I can buy the dessert!" She ran out of the house and went to a Taiyaki store nearby and bought four pieces, deciding Taiyaki would be a good enough dessert.

Sakura got into the apartment and put the taiyaki on the plate and right on time Anko came through the door yelling, "Sakura, I'm home!" When she came into the kitchen to find dinner already prepared on the table she gasped in delight, "Sakura, you didn't have to!"

Sakura smiled holding up the plate of curry proudly, "It was no problem. Really, it's the least I could do since you're letting me stay here with you. I decided the first night I'm staying I should cook for you!"

The two animatedly conversed over dinner, Sakura was extremely pleased at how much Anko loved her food. "Anko-san, will you help me pick out a kimono to wear? I found some of my mom's old ones but I still have to try them on." Anko agreed with much pleasure.

There were all sorts of kimonos with lots of patterns, there was a yellow one with cherry blossoms, a blue one with fishes lining the bottom, and lots of other kinds. "Ayumi always loved wearing kimonos. Try on the yellow one first, Sakura."

The two tried to put Sakura into the yellow kimono, afterwards they looked in the mirror at the pink haired ninja. "That's beautiful, Sakura!"

A hint of pink spread across her face as Sakura said, "Ah, I really like this one. Except the cherry blossoms…"

Anko shook her head nonchalantly, "It makes it more unique and beautiful if you wear cherry blossoms for the winter festival, well at least I think so. Plus, the fish one is a bit childish…" The blush spread once more as she looked doubtfully at the yellow one, never mentioning that she had liked the 'childish' kimono a bit. "I suggest you go with the yellow one!"

Sakura looked at the other kimonos, knowing that none would look as good as the yellow one. Then she saw the green kimono with the variety of winter flowers on it, "Let's try on this one, Anko-san!"

The two wrestled the kimono on as best as they could. Sakura looked in the mirror and was greatly disappointed. She was hoping her mother's favorite kimono would fit perfectly and look amazing but it looked pretty dull on her. "Darn it," Sakura muttered, "I look horrible in this."

"Hm, you don't look bad. I still think you should go with the yellow one…" Anko said and yawned. "How 'bout we watch a movie?" she asked.

"Okay, I guess I can pick out with kimono I'm going to wear tomorrow. You pick the movie, I'll go change into my pajamas. Put it in awhile!" Sakura said.

The movie ended up being a horror movie. Sakura hid her head behind a pillow occasionally while Anko just stared wide eyed at the screen, completely unaffected by the atrociously horrid movie. At the end of the movie they decided to go to sleep, they both had a busy day ahead of them the following day.

Sakura woke up earlier than she normally did and got dressed. She carefully tied her hair up with a ribbon so hair wouldn't get into her eyes when she was working. She left a note for Anko telling her where she was and when she would be back. On the way to the hospital she decided to buy some breakfast at the nearest take out store for her mother.

She lugged the food into the hospital room which contained Ayumi, "Good morning!" Sakura said brightly, and set up the breakfast at the table next to her mother, "I decided to bring you breakfast 'cause I know you might get tired of eating from the hospital!"

Ayumi smiled warmly at her daughter and began to eat slowly, only getting through half the meal before getting full. "Oh, Sakura…I have a bit of bad news. They don't think I'll get out of the hospital for a long while. They don't think I'll do well enough out on my own." Her mother's voice drawled in a soft voice that was barely a whisper.

"Oh, well…You shouldn't be too long, and even so I'll come see you everyday! They might even make an exception and let you come home with me, ne?" Sakura smiled optimistically at her mother, hoping to cheer her up. "Oh! I'm volunteering at the rehab center. I should be going soon. I'm only doing it on Mondays and Sundays because Shizune-san was afraid I would get too stressed out though."

"Oh, that's great. Don't push yourself too hard, I'll see you in a little bit." The two hugged each other gently, "Come back at your break okay?"

The kunoichi rubbed at her 'brow tiredly as she made her way to the rehabilitation wing of the hospital. There in the office area was Shizune waiting for her, "Good morning Sakura!"

"Good morning Shizune-san. So, who's my first patient?" Sakura looked around hoping to see the patient around somewhere in the area.

"Well, you will be the nurse of Makoto-san, she's a kunoichi. She's a bit stubborn but she's really kind. She's a similar case to Lee-kun, but Tsunade still needs to fine-tune the surgery before she can use it on someone like her. You will need to help her exercise her legs, take her on walks. And here's a chart for her schedule," Shizune paused there as she handed the clipboard to Sakura, "Make sure she is everywhere on time, especially when the doctor comes to see her. It is currently 8:45, you will need to wake her up in fifteen minutes. You have a break during her lunch time at twelve and the fulltime nurse will be here at two. Its long hours but I'm sure you'll handle it just fine!"

Sakura nodded and bowed politely, she uneasily made her way to her patient's room. She wasn't uneasy about getting around the rehabilitation wing, she has worked in the hospital for a couple years now and she is confident she knows most of the places. She was more worried about what the patient thought of her.

The pink haired kunoichi opened the door to reveal the brown haired girl sleeping peacefully in her bed. She looked at her charts reading the girl's profile, in the progress making herself more uneasy, the girl was just 15 there was only a two or three year difference in their age. She swallowed her nerves and walked over to the patient, "Good morning, Makoto-san. It's time to wake up!" She cheerfully said as if she wasn't nervous about her first day as a rehab nurse.

Makoto groaned groggily and sat up, rubbing her fists at her eyes to get the sleepy dirt out. "It's too early! I want to go back to sleep, damn." Sakura visibly winced at how nonchalantly the girl swore. Sakura simply shrugged the foul word off, letting it slide for once.

"Nope, you have to wake up. You'll miss breakfast!" Sakura replied, looking at the clock nervously. She had to get the girl down to the café at 9:20, and the girl still had to get ready. "French toast and bacon is for breakfast."

"Okay, I'm getting up. I need to brush my teeth quick and change." Sakura helped the girl out of bed letting Makoto lean on her for support and led her into the bathroom. "Can you get my clothes?" Makoto asked roughly. Sakura simply nodded and picked sweatpants and a t-shirt for the girl.

They finally managed to get Makoto ready and made their way down to the café with five minutes to spare. Sakura walked closely by Makoto, who was now supported by crutches, to make sure she wouldn't fall. "Hm, let's see. After this you go to your physical therapy from ten o'clock to twelve, then its lunch," Sakura was about to make a comment about her long therapy hours but then shut her mouth before it came out.

The morning went a long smoothly and she stared through the glass at her patient, seeing the distress on her face as she went through her therapy session. Watching Makoto struggled only urged her on to help her more with rehabilitation.

Sasuke woke up to the scent of French toast cooking on the stove, he tiredly got out of bed and hastily put some clothes on and walked half asleep to the kitchen table.

"How late did you get home last night? I tried to wait up but it was already 10:00 and I couldn't wait much longer," Naruto groaned as he put one French toast on each of the plates.

"10:30, dobe." Was all the Uchiha responded by. It was hard to tell if he had a good time or a lousy time, which must have been difficult to decipher because Naruto could usually see through all of the raven's stoic grunts and one word replies.

"Oh, have you seen Sakura lately? I'm worried about her, her mom's in the hospital and everything." Naruto asked with a stressed expression adorning his tired face.

"Nope, she's probably visiting her or working. I heard she's volunteering now. Oh, speaking of not seeing people…Where has Sai gotten off to?" Sasuke asked quizzically.

Naruto shrugged impassively, "He's off on a mission. He gets all the nice long missions around here, shouldn't be back until a couple of months. I think Yamato-sensei's with him. Not like it matters to me, I can't do many missions." As soon as the words left his mouth he regretted saying such, he knew the Uchiha was rather sensitive about Naruto having to sacrifice things just to watch him like a baby.

Sasuke smiled warily at Naruto's concerned face, "Oh. Did Hinata say yes?"

Naruto nodded excitedly and told Sasuke the story about how he asked her out. Then a look of hurt grew across his face, "Sasuke, you lied. I thought you weren't taking anyone?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto stoically, "Well, at the time I wasn't going to. But, then after the BBQ, I decided that I'd give it a try." The expression on Naruto's face after that made Sasuke snort as he tried to contain himself from laughing. Naruto looked like a fish out of the sea as his mouth was parted in a surprised O. The raven haired boy gulped down his orange juice and smacked his teammate's back, "Dobe."

**The Evening of the Festival**

Sakura sat on her futon in Anko's empty apartment. She wanted to look her best for when she met up with Sasuke but her desire to wear the green kimono was greater than the beautiful yellow one. She gave all caution to the wind and grabbed the green kimono and emptied the bag of kimonos and gently placed the green one in it a long with her sandals.

Sakura entered her mother's hospital room telling her mother about her decision. "Oh, Sakura I'm so happy you picked that one. You're going to have such a wonderful time! Now go into the bathroom and change, I have a little surprise for you!"

A couple minutes later Sakura emerged from the bathroom in her green kimono, looking a bit uneasy. Her mother motioned her over to where she was sitting, she pulled out a light lavender ribbon and tied it into Sakura's hair and placed a paler lavender flower in her hair. "You look beautiful. The green may not match your hair like you want it to, but it's lovely." That was all Sakura needed to hear and her confidence was boosted so with that she left the hospital on her way to Naruto and Sasuke's home.

Sakura knocked on the door, anxiously looking around, she jumped as the loud noise of the door squeaking open came. "Sakura-chan?" Naruto's voice came sounding very surprised. "Wow, Sasuke come here. Look at Sakura-chan, doesn't she look nice?"

Sasuke came walking over to the door and smiled gently, "Yes," was all he said and stepped aside to let her come in. "We're waiting for Hinata, would you-" but he was cut off at the knock on the door.

"What good timing!" Naruto exclaimed as he opened the door, "Hey, Hinata-chan! Are you ready to go?" Hinata was timidly standing in a purple kimono with butterflies near the bottom. "You look great!" The usual flush burned on her cheeks as the group walked towards the festival.

Naruto energetically bounced around, "We have to stop at all the food stands, I wanna win a fish this year too! And go on the Ferris wheel!" Sakura stared off into the distance at the extremely tall Ferris wheel, she had to admit that she was not looking forward to the ride. "Woah, how do you think they got that here? Did you ever notice them putting it up?"

"Of course we did, you're just too much of a dobe to realize that they were putting up a ridiculously Ferris wheel," Sasuke sneered.

"Can't you two stop bickering at each other just for this? Hinata and I didn't agree to come with you guys just to listen to this crap," Sakura said huffily as she received surprised stares from the three others.

They finally made it through the chilly air to the festival. They were soon mobbed by their friends. Naruto demanded that they all meet at the Ferris wheel in one hour much to Sakura's displeasure. Sasuike gripped Sakura's hand gently and led her to a food stand that sold Taiyaki and ordered two. "I love taiyaki, thanks so much!" Sakura said. The two continued walking, stopping by games every so often.

They bumped into Chouji and Ino while trying to win a stuffed bunny. "Oh! Ino, Chouji are you going out with each other?" Sakura asked bluntly.

Ino smiled and sighed softly, "No, we figured that since we don't have dates we'd go together. I was a little reluctant at first, but we're having a blast actually." They split up afterwards and Sakura clutching her rabbit to her stomach as she felt the butterflies come back as the hour came nearer.

Sakura could feel her stomach growing fuller; they stopped at countless food stands. "We should be getting to the Ferris wheel soon," Sasuke said as he led Sakura towards where it was.

"Oh…Okay." Sakura's voice was a bit shaky, Sasuke smiled reassuringly at her.

"You don't have to go on it if you don't want to Sakura…" He began until Naruto tackled him.

"Teme! You're late it's almost about to go!" Naruto screeched and Sasuke winced, covered his ears and shoved Naruto off him all at once.

"Okay okay." The group of them went up to the line at the Ferris wheel.

"So how long does it take for this Ferris wheel to go around?" Neji asked, the group looked around for a sign until Tenten pointed at a sign that said: Ten minutes in the Ferris wheel.

Temari stared in awe at the massively tall Ferris wheel, "Ten minutes of being locked into a small compact space hundreds of feet in the air…" Her voice was misty sounding until a look of pure glee spread through her face, "Sweet!"

Sakura however looked up in sheer horror, the thoughts of being in a closed off area up in the middle of the sky seemed crazy enough but having to stand being up there for ten minutes.

Sakura, Hinata, Sasuke, and Naruto all boarded a cart together. The cart in front of them held Temari, Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji while the one behind them held Neji Tenten Lee and Kiba.

Sakura looked around at the ground rapidly as the cart was slowly raised upwards into the air. She was sitting beside Hinata and in front of Sasuke. Her fingers tightly clenched the fabric of her kimono and her prize bunny, her knuckles going white. "S-sakura-chan, there's really nothing to be nervous about w-we're safe," Hinata comforted her.

Sasuke was impassively staring out the window, his expression pretty much unreadable. Naruto was excitedly staring about at the village below, Hinata was doing the same. Sakura was staring up into the sky waiting for it to get over with. The cart was a bit tight, her knees pressed against Sasuke's and sitting rather close to Hinata.

They were almost at full height when Sakura gathered enough courage up to look down, she became extremely dizzy until Sasuke grasped her hand, "Sakura, relax. It's fine." He tried to reassure her and it did work somewhat.

After she got passed the terrifying height, she realized how nice it was to be up so far into the sky. They simply sat there in silence all pondering over the fact that they were indeed being lifted hundreds of feet into the air. Sakura looked at the faces of her friends and smiled to herself at how calm and peaceful they looked. For some reason none of them found it strange to be sitting in a Ferris wheel in absolute silence, they enjoyed relishing the feeling of being pulled up into the air with some of the people they cared about most and for a moment Sakura, of all people, wished they wouldn't come back onto land. It was as if being carried up towards the moon sent them into another world where it was just them in a tight fitting cart with nothing but stars.

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**A/N: Okay, the festival will continue next chapter! I'm sorry if medical terms are not accurate, I try my best. Thank you all my readers and viewers I love you so much!**

**Wow, this chapter was my longest ever I think and I just finished it at 2:05 a.m. I'm exhausted. I'm not planning on making this story any more than 10 chapters, but depending on my reviews I'll see about how far I'll take it.**

**I know I haven't introduced the onesided boy x boy yet but it's coming next chapter, I did hint it in the last chapter though…**

**Okay, so if you have any more pairings you want to see, send it in with your review! Thanks. **

**The faster you review the faster I update.**

**Thanks everyone and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	5. I Shouldn't Feel This Way

**A/N: Omg this took FOREVER. I'm so sorry. So many months went by, I had to critique it and everything. Bah, well it should be on a roll and Karin and Sai come in next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other of the characters.**

**Warnings: One sided Boy x Boy.**

**Enjoy!

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**Sennyu Megami- It's hard to get Anko IC lol, I'm trying my best though D Thank you so much.**

**CherryBlossoms016- I don't know about Temari and Sai together, but the Shikamaru pairing is coming in, the girl he'll end up with is still unsure D I have their relationship completely planned out though.**

**Escalus- Thank you so much, the advice helped a lot. Sai/Karin are coming next chapter. I hope in time I'll get better at making them in character.

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In Any Other World

Chapter 5

I Shouldn't Feel This Way

The day after the festival Sakura woke up to voices outside the bedroom door and then a thud. She recognized the first voice as Anko but the second was a familiar male voice. She stood up and pulled the door open a crack to reveal Kakashi and Anko heatedly kissing. Sakura could feel her face flush, Anko clearly forgetting that Sakura was sleeping at her house. Sakura rapidly got changed and hopped out the bedroom window into the cool morning air.

The young kunoichi quickly made her way to Naruto's house and knocked on their door. A disheveled Naruto opened the door, still in his night clothes. "Sakura-chan, what are you doing here?" the blond asked as he opened the door wider inviting his friend inside.

"Oh, sorry but uh…I can't really stay at Anko's right now. I need your help." Sakura asked desperately. She stepped in the room and plopped herself on the couch. She looked around for her other teammate, "Where's Sasuke-kun?"

"He's making breakfast. Don't try any of it though, it's probably poisonous." Naruto said in a low voice, except it was made clear that it wasn't low enough by an orange hitting the blond in the head. "Teme! I wasn't even serious, bastard." The blond's face turned serious then and sat beside Sakura on his couch. "Anyways, what do you need help with?"

"Well, I can't really rely on Anko anymore, I've intruded too much and I'm holding her back I guess. Will you help me find an apartment?" Sakura took her eyes from Naruto, she was nervous to live on her own for the first time but she knew she couldn't keep relying on people.

"Why don't you live at your mom's house?" Naruto asked but then his face grew excited and he jumped up from the couch leaving the coffee table shaking. "Or you could stay here with us?!"

Sakura laughed hesitantly, "No. My mother would never allow that, and it would be weird wouldn't it? Anyways, I was just wondering if you would come with me to look around for a nice apartment, because to be honest I have no idea what to look for and you've lived by yourself for so long…" Her last sentence faded afraid she might have offended him in some way.

Naruto just grinned, and rubbed the back of his head, "Ah, sorry I have to go to a meeting with the Hokage today. Oh, hey. Take Sasuke with you, that way he won't have to wait for me. It'll be so convenient for you both!" Without waiting for me to even agree he barged into the kitchen and grabbed Sasuke dragging him out to the living room, "Sasuke you're going with Sakura-chan to look for an apartment for her today." Sasuke glared and pulled his arm out of the blonde's grip and growled out an "Hn."

After the three ate the breakfast Sasuke made they all parted ways, Naruto going to the Hokage's tower and Sakura and Sasuke going to find an apartment.

**Meanwhile with Ino**

Ino woke up early that morning to get ready for training with her team. Shikamaru promised to come over to walk with her to the training grounds. The blonde girl found herself spending extra time getting ready and she mentally slapped herself and told herself, "Stop, he already has a girlfriend. It's useless…"

The knock on the door came and she cheerfully made her way to the door but when she opened it Shikamaru was not the only one who came. "Good morning, Ino!" the familiar voice of Temari rang out. Ino was, of course, shocked and not expecting the blow of Temari being there, she found herself having certain hatred towards the girl.

"Oh, good morning guys! One second let me put on my sandals," Ino exclaimed and she hurriedly put them on and stepped out the door, she slammed it on the way out earning curious looks from Shikamaru and Temari. "Oh sorry I'm just tired," Ino lied.

The walk towards the training grounds was exceedingly awkward, Ino only listening to the noise of her sandals hitting the pavement while Temari rattled on. "The weather is great for training. Spring feels so nice, doesn't it?" Ino simply nodded politely and stared ahead, feeling the morning air run through her hair as a breeze.

The team was tired after their intense training. The four were pretty bruised; Ino was a lot more aggressive than she normally was because of her new found hatred of a certain other teenager. At the end of training Ino rapidly said goodbye to her team not being able to stand seeing Temari and Shikamaru together.

Ino turned around to walk off but Temari, with Shikamaru close behind, ran up in front of her and grinned, "Ino, you've gotten really strong since I last saw you." Ino silently stood there, eyes wide opened in shock. Her eyes burned with a familiar wet sensation and she knew if she stayed she would burst into tears with remorse. So she did the only thing she could do, she muttered a thank you and ran off towards her home.

Sakura and Sasuke were looking inside an apartment. It was a good size for one person, two bedrooms, a small living room/kitchen, and a bathroom. "This is so cute, I like this one!" Sakura squealed, she ran over to the window and looked out. "Ooh, I can see the training grounds too. Hey, there's Ino's team…" She trailed off when she noticed Ino running away. "Hm, I wonder what happened. I'll have to go see her then."

Sasuke wasn't really paying attention to what Sakura was saying, just giving a grunt as if he was every now and then. He was studying the sheet with the apartment's history, price, and other information. "You should get this one." He said and handed her the paper, "It's cheap too. It's not that new though, but it has a good price."

Sakura smiled and took the papers, "I think so too. I'll talk to the owner of the apartments tonight then." She signed the paper hastily and put them in her bag.

**Naruto**

"Seeya tomorrow Tsunade!" Naruto quickly said his goodbyes and ran out the door. He was supposed to meet Sakura at the Ramen booth 30 minutes ago with Sasuke. As he was nearing the booth he recognized the back of Sasuke's head. The blond shinobi quickly made his way to his teammate, wondering where on earth Sakura could be. Naruto quickly regretted it as he saw Sakura in Sasuke's arms.

The moment that Naruto realized that he intruded in an intimate moment and he realized that he had tears in his eyes, was the moment he also realized that nothing would be the same. For what seems like an eternity Naruto stood there with a deep frown and tears in his eyes. His legs felt as if they were weights, forbidding him from moving at all.

"Naru-" Sasuke began to call out his name, but before he could even finish Naruto was sprinting off towards his apartment. The blond's eyes were burning with water as he blindly pushed passed innocent bystanders in his desperate attempt at going home before he ran into someone he knew. He barreled through the door of his apartment and quickly locked it behind him. He had no plans of what he was going to do when Sasuke returned, Sasuke was his responsibility after all and he was going to have to face him.

In his rush to lock the door he failed to realize that he wasn't alone, "Naruto?" A curious voice came from the direction of his kitchen table. The blond didn't hesitate to swiftly bring out a kunai and aim it at the intruder. "Whoa, I have no idea what happened to you but just calm down. It's just me, Shikamaru!"

Blood rushed to the blond's face as he took in the state he was in. He still had tears running down his face, his hair in tangles, and his clothes were disheveled. The teenager hastily wiped the tears off his face with his sleeves and ran a hand through his sunny locks of hair. "I'm so sorry, you had me scared shitless! I forgot you were coming over."

"It's okay, I shouldn't have barged in. What's up with you, man?" Shikamaru demanded to know, Naruto couldn't blame him. He would be doing the same thing if his best friend just collided through the front door looking like a disaster. Naruto opened his mouth to deny that anything was wrong, maybe use the excuse that he fell or something when he was interrupted, "Don't even say nothing. Naruto, you've been acting _nothing _but weird since Sasuke's come back. First you kick me out when I asked who you were going to ask to the festival, and now you come back from getting Sasuke while in tears. Oh, and I didn't forget the fact that he's currently missing. So what the hell has been going on with you two? Is it because you think that since he's back, Sakura isn't going to follow you around, or maybe you're afraid you'll lose your chance with Sakura"

Naruto was surprised by this; Shikamaru hardly ever bothers with anyone else's business. He was one of the laziest kids he's ever met, he honestly didn't know whether to be flattered or extremely pissed. He suddenly felt very dizzy, Shikamaru had it all wrong. Though, if he told him the truth then Shikamaru might never talk to him. The love Naruto had wouldn't be widely accepted by the Konoha population. The blond had full intentions of keeping his temper down, but seeing Shikamaru simply sitting at the kitchen table as if he was bored made him rage.

Naruto swiftly took a seat right on the other side of the table and mustered up a glare, "Why would I bother spending years of my life getting him back to just regret it? I didn't do it so that _she_ would love me. I had a crush on her when I was young, it means nothing now. I had selfish intentions when I got him back; it wasn't for anyone but me." Naruto was clenching his fists around the bottom of his chair so tight his knuckles began to turn white. In his consciousness he knew he should feel bad about yelling at his friend who was only trying to help, but the pent-up rage just kept coming.

Shikamaru finally had a look of worry on his face; he sat a little straighter staring his friend in the eye. "Don't lie to yourself Naruto. Why else would you be so upset and kick me out? I noticed the way you look at Sasuke and Sakura, why don't you just say something to her? Step in before he takes her from you. You'll never be happy until you actually try and stop being jealous." At this Naruto looked at him incredulously. Shikamaru sighed and noticed he was just digging himself a bigger grave. Slowly, he backed his chair up and made his careful way to the door. "Naruto, I'm sorry I made you so stressed over this. I should leave before I make it worse."

Naruto found his mask breaking and in an attempt to fix it he scowled, "You don't know anything, Shikamaru. You all assume that I'm still so "in love" with Sakura, and I'm always jealous of Sasuke." Shikamaru had a look of panic on his face, the blond saw this but he couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "Well you know what? I'm not jealous of Sasuke, I'm jealous of Sakura!" He unknowingly yelled at the top of his lungs.

Shikamaru's eyes visibly widened and he stepped away from the door. Suddenly the dizziness came back full force and he felt his stomach squeeze. "O-oh, I d-didn't…" Naruto stuttered, but before he could finish he felt a warm vile sensation flowing up his throat and he felt the foul substance come out as he vomited on his carpet.

In perfect timing a second afterwards the door opened to reveal Sasuke who walked into to see a sight of a panic stricken Shikamaru and a quite sick Naruto. As if on reflexes Sasuke quickly grabbed Naruto's arm a little roughly and dragged him to the bathroom making him lean over the toilet as he retched.

Shikamaru came in shortly with a damp towel and a glass of water. Naruto gasped for breath and he pulled his head back and shakily stood on his feet. He grabbed the glass of water from his friend's hand and took a big gulp of it and swished it around his teeth. "I must have caught a cold or something…" Naruto lamely excused.

Sasuke turned away and walked out the door into the kitchen, and right in Shikamaru's sight he saw the hurt look in Naruto's clear blue eyes. Naruto put the glass down and walked back out to the couch in his living room. "Naruto, I need to go. I'm sorry for bothering you today, I'll see you. Ja," Shikamaru said, the brunette guilty of leaving his friend like this but he would be in trouble if he skipped his mission.

Sasuke walked into the silent room and sat a mug of tea in front of the blond, "Here. It'll make you feel better." The brunette took a seat next to Naruto and let out a deep sigh.

"Sorry about earlier, I don't know why I was so shocked." Naruto sent a fake smile at Sasuke who replied with a doubting disbelieving expression stuck on his face. Suddenly Naruto got up and grabbed his tea, "I need fresh air, don't go anywhere or get me in trouble."

**Before with Sakura**

"Oh, Sasuke-kun we need to go meet Naruto at the ramen stand. Let's go!" Sakura demanded as she led the way to the stand. The two stood in awkward silence, neither knowing what to talk about. They received plenty of stares, which weren't uncommon when you were hanging around the Uchiha prodigy.

"That baka, he's late again." Sakura huffs kicking stones nowhere in particular with an unpleasant scowl on her face. 'Hn' is the only reply she gets. The pink haired kunoichi hesitantly looked up at Sasuke, wondering why he even accepted to go on a date with her. It seemed as if he had no interest in being with her at all.

Out of the blue the pink haired kunoichi found herself in the taller boy's arms. She felt her cheeks turn into a shade of red and she almost relaxed into him until she heard the footsteps of her teammate and she saw his face out of the crook of his arm. She forcefully pushed back as she saw the surprised and devastated look of her friend's face. Sakura felt an extreme anxiety pit in her stomach, feeling as if she broke her best friend's heart.

Sasuke tried calling his name again but as if a spell was broken Naruto sprinted off before the two could catch him. The brunette looked down at the pink haired kunoichi, "He'll be fine." He grunted out and started walking towards the apartment he lived in. Sakura hurriedly ran to catch up with him, the mood dampened by the look of their teammate's devastation looming over them. Sasuke quietly unlocked the apartment and stepped in without a goodbye.

Sakura left and started walking to the hospital but got sidetracked when she saw the training grounds, she sat down at the nearest bench. The kunoichi let all her muscles relax and closed her eyes. The teenager found herself falling into a light sleep as she listened to the breeze rustling the wind.

The peaceful moments she was enjoying while she was sleeping was ruined when someone sat next to her. "Sakura-chan, sorry about earlier," a familiar voice cheerfully chimed.

"Naruto? Don't be sorry. It's fine. What's wrong though?" Sakura asked, the thought that Sasuke was alone at his house never crossing her mind.

"I was just a bit shocked, and I know I shouldn't have been. I already knew you two got together at the festival. It's just not really Sasuke to get into a relationship you know?" Naruto's voice faltered at some point as if he said something wrong.

Sakura nodded not knowing what else to say, the two sat in what they thought would be uncomfortable quiet but was actually quite relaxing. "Naruto if there's ever anything wrong you can talk to me, you know that right?"

Naruto closed his eyes and sighed, "I know." He felt the dizziness coming back but he knew he needed to say this. Even if it was selfish, even if she was never going to talk to him again, or even if he is banned from the village, he needed to get this straight. "Sakura, I know this isn't right. I probably should keep it secret, but I can't anymore. Though if you tell anyone my life would be ruined, so you can't possibly do that, please promise." Naruto pleaded looking in her eyes desperately.

Sakura nodded to him, "I would never tell anyone." She flashed an encouraging smile, she had in fact told him to open up to her and it was too late to back out now.

Naruto hesitated and he looked up at the setting sun as if it would give him courage to say what he was about to say. With sad crystal clear blue eyes he looked to Sakura, his voice quiet and soft as he spoke the words that might break them apart,

"_I'm in love with Sasuke."

* * *

_

**A/N: Bah, so much happened I couldn't post it in time. I hope you enjoyed it, it took forever. For the most dramatic chapter I don't think it was very good.**

**Review and tell me if I should continue with this. Also I'm still accepting ideas for other couples.**

**For all those people who HATE boy pairings, I can assure you that Sakura and Sasuke are the main pairing. D I hope everyone still reads this.**


	6. Turn Your Tears to Roses

**A/N: Hello! Here's the next chapter. Sorry for the wait! I tried to update as soon as I could, for once I'm happy with this chapter. I spent so much time on it!**

_Italics at the beginning are flashbacks._

_After the flashback in the story italics are thoughts._

**Warnings: Hint at one sided boy x boy. Occasional curse word**

**Main pairing: SasuSaku**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters.

* * *

**

In Any Other World

Chapter 6

Turn Your Tears To Roses

_Sakura nodded to him, "I would never tell anyone." She flashed an encouraging smile, she had in fact told him to open up to her and it was too late to back out now._

_Naruto hesitated and he looked up at the setting sun as if it would give him courage to say what he was about to say. With sad crystal clear blue eyes he looked to Sakura, his voice quiet and soft as he spoke the words that might break them apart,_

"_I'm in love with Sasuke."_

Whatever Sakura was expecting, it wasn't that. "W-what, since when?" Sakura asked, completely thrown off track. Naruto just smiled faintly avoiding eye contact.

"I'm not sure. Sakura, I don't want this to hinder our friendship. Though if you can't continue to be my friend, please accept my request to continue to be my teammate!" Naruto pleaded, his former friend just gave him a complete look of shock. "I won't try to get between you and Sasuke's relationship. I'm sorry I shouldn't have imposed such information on you." The blond bowed his head and walked away from the kunoichi.

Sakura stood there for a moment, her mind reeling. _Naruto thinks Sasuke and I are together…_She couldn't help but feel thankful for that, yet it filled her with guilt.

**Meanwhile at the Konoha gates**

The shinobi on post were on duty when they spotted a young woman suspiciously sprawled outside of the village gate. The girl had lengthy blonde hair and dark black eyes; she had typical Konoha kunoichi gear on. The shinobi cautiously walked up to the lady and noticed she was completely knocked out. "Genma, pick her up and take her to the hospital, her breathing and heart rate are normal she'll be okay." He said as he checked her vitals.

The brown haired ninja nodded and lifted the girl over his shoulder and transporting her to the hospital. "I have a patient for you, she was found outside the gates unconscious. We're not sure what happened to her, I'm not sure who she is exactly either," Genma addressed the secretary at the hospital desk who nodded and pointed towards a waiting chair.

"Okay, I trust her into your care. I must report this to Tsunade-sama at once," Genma hastily made his exit towards the Hokage Tower.

Tsunade was currently reading through papers of incoming missions when she heard a loud knock at the door, "Come in!" Her voice boomed out.

A worried Genma entered the room, giving a polite bow. "Tsunade-sama, just now we found a young girl who looked to be in her early twenties, collapsed outside of the gates. If we go by appearances, she seems like she's from Konoha. I don't remember her leaving Konoha though."

Tsunade took several moments to contemplate the information before she got up from her seat, "Shizune!" She called before looking to Genma, "I'll go to the hospital and ask her, thank you for the report. You may go back to your post." Shizune came into the room out of breath. "Shizune, please look after my office while I go to the hospital."

The girl was awake and sitting up with her back resting against the wall when the hokage entered the room. The strange girl flashed the older woman a smile and bowed politely, "Good afternoon, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade recognized the young woman immediately; she had sent her on a mission a week ago to the Sand Country. "Oh, I was informed you were knocked unconscious. Do you remember how it happened? I find it strange since you were so close and all." The older woman racked her brain trying to find the name of the kunoichi.

"Well, the mission I was on had a little complication; I hadn't rested the night before that well before coming here. I'd imagine I just passed out from fatigue. Oh and my name is…Fujita Saki. I'm the Chounin you sent on the mission to deliver the message to the Suna village, it was a success," The blonde hurriedly explained, only giving a strange pause when she was giving her name as if she couldn't remember.

Tsunade stared at the girl for a moment still unsure about the girl, she sighed uneasily before excusing herself, "Thank you, Fujita-san. Please write your report on your success and troubles and give them to me before the end of the week. Keep training with your team."

Saki was let out of the hospital a couple hours later, she stepped out of the hospital doors and stood there simply breathing in the crisp air. Passerbies gave her strange glances, Saki just smiled politely and walked on. "Saki-chan! Where've you been?"

Saki's face contorted into a strange confusion at the girl running up to her,"Are you okay Saki-chan?" The strange girl had brown hair, yet strangely enough even though the girl was so familiar with Fujita, the blonde had no idea who she was.

"Oh! No, I'm fine. Well, I had to go on a mission. Sorry, I wasn't planning it to be that long," The blonde replied. "Hey, I have to go see my family though. I'll catch you later!"

The blonde continued to walk without waiting for a goodbye, as she was taking her leave she saw a familiar long brown haired shinobi with clear gray eyes, _Hyuuga?_ Saki looked behind her and listened for a moment as he approached the brunette, "Tenten, have you seen Naruto?" The blonde didn't wait for any more of the conversation; she smirked and continued on her way.

Saki had been aimlessly wondering, memorizing the contents of the village and it was almost completely dark outside when she decided that it was time to check into a local hostel for a cheap shelter to sleep in.

The next day Saki figured she'd set out in the looks for Team 7. Her first place to look was at the training grounds, but it was completely empty there except for a small purple haired girl with clear gray eyes. The blonde stood there for a moment trying to remember which member of the Hyuuga clan this could be. "Excuse me," Saki said feigning hesitance.

"O-oh, h-hello," Hinata's stuttering voice rang out, immediately Saki's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. The girl immediately scrambled to pick up her belongings and set them back in her bag, a blush appearing on her face. "Sorry."

The blonde faked a smile and made a waving motion with her hand, "No, don't be. I just came here looking for Sakura-chan. Do you know where she is?" Saki asked curiously.

"O-oh, Sakura is at the old apartment building, the street over from the market place."

"Thanks," Was all Saki said to the shy girl before she ran off in the direction of the market. She made it in time to see Sakura entering the building with a man around the age of 40. Immediately, the blonde was interested so she left the humid air to go into the cool air conditioned building.

She followed them up two flights of stairs until they got to a room at the end of a long hallway, Saki noticed with discomfort how the floorboards ominously squeaked under the weight of her feet. "I think I want to rent this," Saki heard from the nearest room. The door was hanging open so she let herself in, masking her chakra.

Unexpectedly the pink haired kunoichi turned around spotting the blonde instantly, the blonde silently cursed herself for being so careless. "Oh, hello," the pink haired girl greeted.

Saki looked around trying to find some sort of valid explanation of why she would be there. "Hello. My name is Fujita Saki. You can call me Saki though. I was just coming to see this apartment, I heard it was for sale but I can see that you are already interested so I guess I should leave." The blonde replied coolly with another feigned smile on her face.

The older looking man scratched his head in thought, "Well you two could share it. Be roommates. Split the rent." He suggested. Saki's smile grew into a smirk inwardly thanking the old man.

Sakura looked a little worried though; sharing an apartment with a total stranger wasn't what she thought of as a good idea. "I don't know…"

Saki smiled and walked up to the other teenager, "I'm okay with that. We can just put locks on the bedroom doors. Plus, the rent will be so much smaller!" She exclaimed, a little forcefully.

"Well, alright."

**Elsewhere**

Naruto was awaken to a loud banging on the door, he screamed a curse as he got out of bed not even bothering to change into his everyday clothes. The blond walked to the door as he heard a muttering Sasuke getting out of bed behind his door. When he opened the door he could've sworn he was going crazy because he was immediately greeted by Sasuke, only to look again to see that it was Sai.

"Sai? What are you doing here?" Naruto demanded, a little grumpily.

Sai gave one of his fake smiles, "I heard Sasuke is back."

"Yeah…That doesn't answer my question."

The raven let himself in and plopped himself on the faded couch. "I came back from my mission last night. I got some interesting information on Uchiha." He replied a little more quietly in case the youngest Uchiha was listening.

Naruto groaned tiredly and rubbed his eyes in an attempt to wake himself up, "Okay. Well I can't talk about that here. Meet me tonight at Ichiraku's, okay? Sasuke and I have to be at the Hokage's tower in an hour."

Sai simply nodded and made his way out the door as soon as he left Sasuke came in giving Naruto a suspicious look. "What was that about?" He asked moodily.

"Oh, Sai just wanted to know if I'd train with him tonight."

"Oh, am I coming with you to watch you get your ass kicked?"

"Teme! No. Yamato just wants it to be the three of us, I don't know why. Must be some weird mission," Naruto lied quickly. Sasuke caught a glimpse of guilt on Naruto's face and decided to let it slide and slumped away into the kitchen for breakfast.

The two were making their way to the Hokage's tower for their meeting with Tsunade; they were getting an odd assortment of stares. It would have made Naruto nervous if it wasn't usual. It didn't take Sasuke long to adjust to the glares of the villagers who labeled him as a traitor. He just treated the problem like how he treated the girls who swooned over him; he completely ignored it.

"I have good and bad news!" Tsunade bellowed as the pair entered her office. "Uchiha, in eight months you will be free to live wherever and however you would like. You must continue assisting Iruka and you will not be allowed to leave the village. However, the Council is very upset at the lack of details about your homecoming and they aren't very convinced you still belong here. You must meet the Council in court in four months. I suggest you work as hard as you can to get the village on your side."

Naruto grinned happily and looked over to Sasuke who was still stoically posed with his arms crossed. The meeting went on for 15 minutes speaking about Sasuke's restrictions and then Sasuke was sent to a check up.

They were walking to Kiba's house to meet with their friends when they saw Sakura and an unfamiliar blonde at the window of a furniture shop. "Sakura-chan?" Naruto called out to the two. The pair of girls turned around and instantly the strange one screamed.

"Sasuke-kun!" Saki screamed and ran towards the raven and attacked him in a hug. Sasuke looked alarmed and immediately loosened himself from the stranger's grip, though not before noticing the familiar feeling he got from the blonde.

Sakura quickly walked back to the group of her friends, looking in concern at Saki. "Saki-chan do you know Sasuke?" She asked curiously.

The blonde stopped all her movements and her expression of pure joy changed and she scratched her head to feign embarrassment. "Ah, I'm sorry. My name is Fujita Saki, I'm such a big…fan. I've heard so much about you, ever since the Chuunin exam. Sakura and I are now roommates as well! Nice to meet you," The blonde hastily spat all out at once.

Naruto stared at Sakura in confusion for a moment before turning back to Saki, "Oh, my name is Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you too, Saki-chan!" He exclaimed with a friendly grin on his face. "Excuse Sasuke, he doesn't really say much." The statement was followed by a grunt from the mentioned shinobi.

"Oh, do you two want to come see our new apartment? We were just looking at that store to see about furniture. We haven't moved in yet though, I'll be living in my mom's old house for a while longer." Sakura suggested.

"Ahh, we would love to!" Naruto replied without waiting for even a comment from Sasuke who just sighed impatiently.

"Oh, it's big! I love it, Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned at her, her cheeks flushed embarrassed, her thoughts going back to their conversation a day ago. The blonde was running around the room like a madman while Sakura glanced at Saki who was busy fawning over Sasuke when he wasn't looking.

"Oh, I have to go see my mom in the hospital for a while, sorry guys." Sakura eyed Saki who was still swooning. "Saki, there's two sleeping bags in my room for us to sleep on tonight. I'm getting some of my bed and things from my room moved here tomorrow, I'll order you a bed too." The blonde looked over to Sakura startled, and she smiled sweetly and nodded.

"Ahh. I have to go meet Sai! Sakura, please can you take Sasuke with you?" Naruto basically begged her to, giving her his most convincing puppy dog eyes he could muster. Sakura's eye visibly twitched and rolled her eyes before giving in with a rough "Fine…"

"He could stay here!" Saki eagerly suggests.

"Ah, Tsunade would never allow that." Sakura hastily replied before Sasuke or Naruto had even a thought about it, she quickly grabbed Naruto by the arm and led them out of the apartment. "I'll be back, Saki-chan."

* * *

Sakura and Sasuke parted ways with Naruto, they made their way to the hospital in awkward silence. Sakura mentally cursed Naruto for putting her into this situation. "I'm not sure if it's a great idea for you to share an apartment with a total stranger." Sasuke said hesitantly, almost bored.

The pink haired teen simply smiled at him reassuringly. "I don't know, she's a little weird but I kind of trust her." She laughed slightly and nudged the raven in the ribs with her elbow, "She certainly is interested in you though." The kunoichi put on the cheesiest face she could muster, feigning to swoon she mimicked Saki almost perfectly, "_Sasuke-kuuun!"_

Sasuke gave a low "Hmph" speeding up the pace a bit grumpily; the other was already used to his constant grumpiness and just laughed. "I guess I was just like that a few years ago wasn't I?" Neither of the two said anything after that and just continued walking in uncomfortable silence.

The blond approached Ichiraku as expected Sai was already waiting for him outside of Ichiraku. "You're finally here, Naruto-kun," The Sasuke look-alike said impassively. Naruto clenched his fist agitatedly.

"Yeah yeah, so what is this all about anyhow?" Naruto said grumpily.

"I don't think we should talk about it here. Let's go somewhere else." Sai suggested, Naruto simply nodded.

The two made it up to the Hokage Mountain and sat looking over at the village. Almost instantly Naruto's face calmed and waited for Sai to begin to explain himself.

Sai coughed into his hand to clear his throat and make sure he had the blond's attention. "I was on my mission to try to find any hints of where the remainder of Hebi is. There were rumors that they died, but Tsunade-sama wasn't convinced. Until Hebi is found Sasuke needs to be confined, I am almost positive that they are—"

"Sasuke would never betray us again," The harsh and passionate voice of the blond rang out in to the quiet air, his fists clenched so tight that his nails made imprints on his hand. "He's already confined enough. If I know Sasuke, the members of Hebi were just a tool to accomplish his goal."

"You're okay with knowing that? How do you know that he isn't using you as a tool?" Sai questioned, the air became tense and Naruto snorted.

"I can't do anything about how he treated his teammates. That doesn't apply to me, we're not teammates anymore. We can't go back to how we were," Naruto solemnly spoke, his voice coming out as a whisper.

Sai chuckled a bit and smiled lightly at Naruto, "You speak about him as if you're in love." Immediately a blush spread to the blond's face looking up at the other shinobi. The dark haired male looked shock only muttering, "I see…"

The blond's blush increased and he flailed his arms in a panic, "No! Definitely not, it's not like that, Sakura is in love with him. He's like my brother, my best friend." Naruto calmed himself down and gave a low laugh, "Oi, you always get the wrong ideas."

The other shook his head and stared at the blond, "I don't think I did. It's so obvious Naruto, continue and the whole world will know." Sai stood up slowly and walked a few paces back, his eyes filled with some kind of pain, "Keep in mind what I said. Watch out for Hebi or bringing Sasuke home will backfire. You say you two are like brothers? He's killed his brother before; I'm not sure you want that kind of bond." With that Naruto was greeted with the back of Sai and a long silence after he was gone.

"Sakura, Sakura!" An ecstatic Ino came bounding up to Sasuke and Sakura on their way home. Completely ignoring Sasuke she squealed, "Shikamaru and Temari were never together. She's going back to the Sand Country soon." At that she frowned a bit and looked somewhat disappointed.

"Eh, you're disappointed? You and Shikamaru can get together now hopefully," Sakura smiled calmly at her, turning her head to grin at Sasuke who stood there his face in one of shock. One could only guess what caused him to be so shocked. Though the real reason was because Ino had changed so much just like Sakura, she was no longer the little girl who chased after Sasuke and decided her personality based on what Sasuke would like.

Ino shook her head and smiled, "No I'm extremely happy. But it's kind of disappointing, I mean I should've realized it before."

Sakura's face turned blank in confusion, "Realized what?"

"In all these novels these days, there's a heroine that loves a man but then the enemy is always the other who is in love with the same man. Real life is nothing like that; the "enemy" is honest, sweet, and caring in real life."

Sakura's mouth gaped open, and a sudden rush of shame ran through her. _Naruto…_

"Fujita-san, some of your belongings were sent here. I sent them up to your room," The secretary announced to Saki when the blonde entered the old hostel.

The teen smiled and nodded, "Yes, thank you." She rushed up to her room to find a bag with clothes sloppily put in, and a letter neatly placed in the bottom.

"_Saki"_

_Here are your belongings. Get the mission done, don't fool around. Do it and get out of there. Avoid the man that goes by the name of Sai, he's on a mission looking for us. I sent with you His shirt that you kept, it's essential that you wear it when you meet him._

_S._

Saki crumbled the paper before taking a lighter and burning it, she rolled her eyes and mumbled, "As if I don't know. Damn." She carelessly put it in the waste bin and sprawled out on her bed.

**Okay, I'm actually happy about this chapter. Not a lot happened, but I introduced two new important characters. I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for reading!**

**R&R**


	7. Picnics, Trials, Birthdays

**A/N: Okay, this took me awhile. Wow. I was looking at my other story and I really need to rewrite that, **_**wow**_**. It's horrid, the mistakes I've made. But I really should finish this one before I do that. I'm sorry about the wait.**

**I forgot to reply to reviews last chapter, ahh. I was in too much of a rush to put up that chapter Haha. So I will do both for this chapter.**

**There's a time skip in this chapter! I hope everyone enjoys this.**

**Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Naruto.**

**Warnings: Cursing, but that's it for this chapter.**

**R&R!**

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**Chapter 5 Reviews:**

**Se-tar **– Yeah…I feel bad because I'm making him miserable. It makes me want to take revenge on everyone that made him miserable so far.

**Sennyu Megami **– Wow, Sai and Ino. That's interesting, but I doubt that will happen in my fanfic. Eh, I can sort of see Sai and Karin, not in this story but in another.

**Ohsoawesome **- Thanks. Yeah, I was kind of anxious for this story because I knew it would be a mixture of people who actually like yaoi and hated it, but regardless I'm really glad you like this story.

**beCyberSafe** – Thanks, I can assure you I will complete this story.

**Chapter 6 Reviews:**

**AnsemMesna **– I was actually thinking about this. It wouldn't be fair since I already promised it would be SasuSaku. Maybe I'll do another version of this story afterwards. Possibly.

**Pink-strawberries **– Aw, thanks. Sorry, the update took so long.

**JP** – Haha, we probably do but I think a lot of characters in this story will be screwed over before the end.

**beCybersafe** - We'll have to see.

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In Any Other World

Chapter 7

Picnics, Trials, and Birthdays

_'Keep in mind what I said. Watch out for Hebi or bringing Sasuke home will backfire. You say you two are like brothers? He's killed his brother before; I'm not sure you want that kind of bond.' _The words drifted through Naruto's mind as he made his way back home, Konoha was blackened by nightfall reminding the blond he should have been home earlier.

He was greeted by a fuming pink-haired teen when he opened his apartment door and a shriek of, "You're late!" from Sakura. Naruto pouted, "Ahh, sorry Sakura. I lost track of time, sorry to make you stay this late." He sheepishly scratched his head as his blue eyes scaled the room for any sign of Sasuke, feeling extremely awkward around her from the other day.

Sakura shook her head to dismiss his apology with a sigh, "Don't worry about it, its fine. Saki-chan is waiting back at the apartment...I've better get going, see you Naruto." The kunoichi smiled warmly at her friend and left through the door quickly and made her way to the apartment.

The blond knocked softly on Sasuke's bedroom door, "Hn," was the grumpy mumble that came from behind the door. Naruto slipped on his cheery grin and took the grumble as an invitation to come in. The dark haired ninja sat on his bed with a book in his hands, "Wow, you sure have been reading a lot lately," The blond remarked though the only response he got was an annoyed glare.

The blond flopped himself down on his best friend's bed lazily and peered up at him. "Sasuke, aren't you the least bit excited to finally be free?"

The brunette tossed his book to the side of his bed and glanced at his old team member and quickly stared back up at the ceiling giving a dark grunt. Naruto rose a 'brow at him about to command an answer when he was interrupted, "That's not until eight months, if the council would even approve."

Naruto snorted and sat up on the creaking bed. "Why wouldn't they approve? All we have to do is tell them how I brought you back and why you left." He never noticed how bare the room he lent Sasuke was, there was the bed he was sitting on against the wall, a coffee table and a dresser. The compact space was a poor excuse for a room compared to the Uchiha Estate.

Sasuke shook his head in disbelief and exclaimed in anger, "You're shitting me!" Naruto flinched and hit his head on the wall as he was taken by surprise, his mouth open trying to think of a way to respond but couldn't find words. "You of all people should know how fucking prejudice the Council are."

The blond's eyes widened in surprise, "What the hell are you talking about? What does this have to do with you at all? It's not like they are antagonists. Their goal isn't to ban you, the great survivor Uchiha, from the village. Don't go around being bitter at me just because you're worried about how your trial will go, bastard."

Sasuke rolled his eyes at his friend, his eyes sharpening into a glare. "Stop pretending you have no idea what I'm talking about. Stop defending the very people who are trying to destroy you. They've been screwing you over since the day you were born and here you are telling me how honorable they are. It makes me _sick_." He spat out the last of his words harshly, shaking with fury.

At this point Naruto's head was spinning, he had no idea what brought this on and he felt like he might vomit again. He clenched his hands together, embarrassed to admit that his hands were shaking. He was even more embarrassed that his best friend noticed these things and found it very tempting to just walk away. Instead he tried to make eye contact with the other, but the brunette just glared at either the wall or ceiling never looking at him. "It makes _you_ sick?!" Naruto yelled indignantly, trying to hide his voice from shaking.

Finally Sasuke looked straight into the bright blue eyes of his old friend, the blond's breath noticeably hitched at the angry glare of the other. "You think I haven't noticed, Naruto? How people still glare at you in revulsion, even after saving them in the Chuunin exams and bringing me back. Yet you are willing to die for a village that treats you like shit.

You still aspire to be Hokage when the fucking Council is too prejudiced to even look at you; I'm surprised anybody with a brain would even look at this village. Every harassment, every fight, every beating has been overlooked. For your own sake, don't come to the trial." The blond's face paled, the only thing he could feel was his mind pounding in the confusion. The young teen felt insulted yet at the same time he couldn't help but feel grateful that someone would actually notice.

"I have no idea where this came from. All I did was asked if you were ready to be free, and you freak out!" Naruto shouted miffed at what was going on. "I'm willing to risk my life for this village because it has people I love in it. I'm sorry I can't throw them away as quickly as you can." He felt like slapping himself as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he frowned at his best friend. "Ah, what I mean to say is…It would have been way easier to leave the village and forget everything that's ever happened, even now. Every feeling and pride that's been shredded to pieces by the villagers could have been forgotten if I left. I would gain more than lose if I ditched my dream of becoming Hokage."

Sasuke shifted his gaze out toward the window that showed nothing but black, he grunted as if to state that Naruto's reasoning was pure stupid. Naruto smiled, relieved that Sasuke hasn't yelled yet. "I won't say that I've never been tempted to just leave, that'd be a lie, but this village isn't as bad as you give it credit for. I've kept my friends and the people I love alive for the past 17 years of my life, I'm not about to leave that. I don't care if coming to the trial will give me more misery than happiness. As long as it gets you free." The brunette felt the weight of the bed shift and looked shocked at Naruto as he made his way towards the door.

"Dobe." the brunette sighed; the blond turned and gave him an embarrassed smile and a sheepish laugh.

Next Day

Sakura woke up the next day in a sleeping bag sprawled out across her empty apartment floor. "Saki-chan?" Sakura called out expecting to hear the cheery voice of her roommate but was only greeted by silence. "Shoot, I'm going to be late for Makoto," the kunoichi exclaimed as she saw the time.

"Sorry I'm late Makoto; my roommate didn't wake me up." Sakura apologized and bowed slightly at the 15 year old. Makoto was sitting up in her bed, idly looking up at the ceiling. The older teen hurried to her side and helped her up and into the bathroom.

When the moody teenager shut the door, Sakura stood out the door and began to tell her patient the day's schedule. "After this we'll head down to breakfast, okay? We're having waffles this morning. Then we'll head to physical therapy, it's a short one today only an hour, we'll be out by 11 o'clock."

"Wait, why is it shortened?" Makoto shrieked through the bathroom, Sakura was surprised at the sound of disappointment. The young girl ripped the door open, "If I don't go long enough I'll never get out of this place. I'm tired of this."

Sakura offered the other her crutches and helped her towards the hall, "Tsunade-sama is working really hard to perfect this surgery, and she's only done it to Lee-kun. Maybe you should talk to him, I'm sure it would make you feel better. On the bright side, after therapy you have a break and then lunch. I'll take you somewhere!" At this prospect the brunette perked up.

Sakura fixed up a tray of breakfast. Seeing the large amount of food that consisted of waffles, strawberries, milk, and sausage put the teen in a pleasant mood taking it as a sign of a good day. As she approached the table she noticed an unfamiliar looking girl with bright blonde hair standing at Makoto's table with a scowl on her face, her lips moving irately. The older teen got to the table and set the two trays down and gave the strange girl a stern look, "Excuse me." At the sudden sound of authority the blonde jumped and left to her own table.

The brunette looked up gratefully towards Sakura, "So where are we going after therapy?"

"Hm. Let's see…We can go shopping if you want. I have some friends of mine who we can have lunch with; I'll invite Lee-kun. I'll set up everything during physical therapy, it'll be fun." The rest of the lunch went by with the two girls animatedly talking about their plans for the afternoon.

When Sakura dropped Makoto off at physical therapy at ten o'clock she quickly made her way out of the hospital to go get ready. The first stop she made was to Lee's house, she quickly knocked on her door in hopes he wasn't training. In her luck Lee opened the door with a surprised shout of, "Sakura!"

"Lee-kun, I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with us. I mean, I started work at the hospital with rehab and my patient is a very similar case to yours, and it would make her really feel better to meet you. You can invite Tenten and Neji too. So, if you can meet us at the training grounds at twelve o'clock that would be great," Sakura hurriedly blurted out her invitation and without another exchange of words she ran off towards Ino's.

It was ten forty-five when Sakura had to head back to the hospital to pick up Makoto; she was very excited and couldn't wait to surprise the disabled girl. "Makoto-chan, are you ready?" The brunette excitingly hurried as fast as she could manage to get to the entrance of the hospital, not bothering to wait for Sakura.

"You're signed out and ready to go. What should we do first? We have until one-thirty to do whatever we want. Want to go shopping?" Sakura asked as they stepped out into the breezy spring air. It was evident on the brunette's face that she was really glad that she had actual free time to do whatever she pleased and nodded in anxiousness at the pink-haired girl.

"Okay, let's go. A little before twelve I thought we'd pick up two of my friends for lunch, I think you'll like them." The two made their way into the market district of the village. At first Sakura was very nervous that she might ruin the whole day, though her companion was just happy to be free from therapy and the strenuous schedule she lived under. The older teen sensing this decided to relax and just enjoy it.

They spent their forty-five minutes exploring small thrift stores, antique stores, and expensive equipment stores. By the time they were done Sakura had two large bags bursting with clothes. Sakura couldn't deny that she absolutely loved picking out clothes for the smaller girl; they spent most of their time trying on regular clothes, and some trying on clothes for missions and training. Makoto seemed extremely thrilled about the weapon and equipment store so they spent a large amount of time shopping through there also, reluctantly without buying anything.

After they were finished, Sakura took the brunette over to the apartment complex that Naruto and Sasuke lived in. For a moment she panicked thinking about how she was going to get Makoto up the stairs, but was relieved to remember that Naruto lived in the second story. Instead of forcing the younger girl to climb the torturous steps, Sakura hoisted her onto her back as if she weighed nothing more than a feather. "Whoa, how did you do that?" Makoto gasped in amazement.

Sakura laughed and made her way to the door of their apartment, "Lots and lots of training. We're here!" The kunoichi let the 15 year old down gently and handed her the crutches. Without any warning she knocked on the door calling out, "Naruto, Sasuke? Open the door, its Sakura; I know you're not training!"

The door opened and a brooding raven haired teen opened the door not showing an ounce of surprise that Sakura brought another girl. Before the moody teen got a word out he was pushed aside by an energetic blond "Sakura-chan!" He exclaimed excitedly, his eyes suddenly locked onto the younger brunette who stood there with her face flushed red in all the confusion.

Naruto grinned cheerily at the girl, "Is this Makoto then? I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Future Hokage, nice to meet you." An unexpected hand reached out and grabbed the collar of his black t-shirt and pulled him away from the doorway muttering something about letting them in. "Oh, this jerk is Uchiha Sasuke. He's not as unfriendly as he seems so don't worry."

Sakura mentally slapped her forehead and was beginning to regret even bringing Makoto here. She should have just not invited them, "This is my team, team 7. Don't worry you'll get used to Naruto." The blond heard this and pouted. "Anyhow, do you want to come to lunch with us?"

The raven haired teen stared at the blond with a harsh look as if threatening for him to say no. The blond though had no care for what the Uchiha wanted at the moment so he smiled and jumped at the prospect of food. "Of course, let's go!"

The group of teens made their way to the training grounds, Sakura figured Makoto would like it here, being able to see where, when she was healed, she'd be able to come and train. As they approached a giant shaded oak, they could clearly make out the figures of Team 10. Ino stood up and waved, "Sakura, we brought the food!"

Team 10 had already spread out a blanket with an assortment of food laid out. Naruto sprang towards the food in delight, "A picnic?!" He shrieked happily and took a seat next to an unhappy looking Shikamaru. On the other hand Sasuke had no look of astonishment whatsoever and stoically sat next to the energetic blond.

Sakura helped Makoto sit and then sat in between the younger teen and Ino. "Where's Lee-kun?" She asked, nervous that Lee forgot or wasn't going to show up.

"He hasn't arrived yet. I would think he'd come since you asked him," Choji said as he was already digging in. Ino directed a glare at Choji, mentally scolding him for being rude. "Oh, wait. Here he comes."

The large group turned and saw a green blur running straight at them, yelling something incomprehensible. Sakura would have been embarrassed if Lee was anyone else, but spending years with the teen made her immune to his antics. "Good afternoon!" He yelled energetically, and looked to Makoto, "Makoto-chan? I've heard much about you." He squeezed himself between Sakura and Makoto, earning an annoyed glance from Sakura.

"Hey, guys!" An excited feminine voice rang out. Tenten and Neji walked up to their fellow team members. "Sorry we're late." Tenten eyed the food in delight and squealed, "Everything looks delicious!" Tenten took a seat next to Makoto, followed by Neji.

"Wow, I'm surprised. It's rare that we ever get together. I'm sorry; I didn't have time to find Team 8." Sakura looked around at the fellow shinobis crowded around the blanket. She was about to say something to allow everyone to start eating but she was interrupted by a loud, "Dig in!" from Naruto.

Everyone began to fill plates with piles of food; it was amazing how much Team 10 could make in such a short period of time. Most of the time Makoto was busy talking to Lee about his surgery, while Naruto tried to pry some information about next year's Chuunin exam as Shikamaru adamantly refused to tell him anything only to begin a conversation about the past exams. Sakura turned to Ino to talk about her flower shop and the clothes Makoto and her found when shopping. Sasuke on the other hand tried to make him unnoticeable as to try to stay out of conversations.

Ino glanced at Sasuke before whispering to Sakura, "Has Sasuke-kun always been this withdrawn?"

Sakura laughed quietly and nodded, "Well, yeah. He hates being around a large group of people. I think it makes him uncomfortable, but it's not unusual. He's always been cold." The pink haired girl shrugged it off and went back to conversation with everyone.

Everyone was extremely wrapped up in their food and conversations but was immediately distracted when Naruto screeched as he was tackled. "Damn, Kiba! Don't sneak up on us like that." Kiba got up and helped the blond to his feet with a wide grin on his face. Akamaru immediately striding over to lie underneath the tree.

"Hey, I smelled the food and I just had to come. I'm starved, my team just got back from a mission!" He stretched his arms and stole Naruto's spot between Sasuke and Shikamaru.

Naruto grumbled and took his plate and sat on the other side of Sasuke. "Where's Hinata and Shino, Kiba?" Sakura asked looking around trying to catch sight of the other members of team 8.

"Oh, uh…I ran ahead of them, they should be up soon." Kiba smiled sheepishly and started to grab some of the left over food, there was still quite an amount of it left.

"H-hello everyone," A timid voice called out as Shino and Hinata approached and settled down next to Naruto and Neji. "I'm sorry we're intruding, Kiba was really eager to come."

Naruto grinned at the shy purple haired girl, "Don't worry about it. Here, eat some food!" Hinata blushed and allowed Sakura to fix her a plate with a hesitant 'thank you'. Soon the conversations struck up and Naruto successfully goaded Sasuke into a conversation.

Tenten looked around and quickly got up and ran over to the tree where she dropped her bag. "I think this calls for a picture!" Shikamaru muttered under his breath what seemed like a curse.

Ino scolded him, "We hardly see each other outside of missions. This will probably be the last time we all see each other for a really long time." So with that, Tenten set the camera up and made sure it was able to take in everyone.

"Okay, when I set it it's going to count down from ten. Everyone smile and get closer together so it doesn't miss anyone!"

_10_

Tenten quickly set the timer and ran back beside Neji, looping her arm around his.

_9_

Sakura put her arms around Ino _and_ Makoto and smiled contently.

_8_

Shikamaru and Choji shifted so that they faced the camera, the heavier of the two picked up a bag of chips and started to put some in his mouth causing a shriek of horror to emit from Ino's mouth, Shikamaru just stared idly at the camera.

_7_

Hinata simply sat there with Shino, glancing at Naruto with a blush but then focusing on the camera with a shy smile.

_6_

Kiba grinned and called Akamaru over who promptly laid in front of him earning a glare and a mutter from Sasuke.

_5_

Naruto grinned and spent the short ten seconds, which actually seemed pretty long, convincing Sasuke to at least try to show a smile and look at the camera.

_4_

Ino glared at Choji hastily and screeched, "Stop eating!" Before quickly going back to smiling so she wouldn't ruin the picture.

_3_

Sakura took one glance around at the group and laughed when Shikamaru remarked, "Are you sure it's not timed to ten minutes?"

_2_

Sasuke just idly looked around at everyone before a tan arm subtly went around his shoulder and pulled his head forcefully to look straight at the camera.

_1_

_Snap._

It's been almost four months since that day, only four days left until the trial. Team 8 and Team 10 have been on missions for most of the four months. Talk of a war soon began to grow around the village, the tension filling the air. Probably the only ninjas who haven't had missions would be Sasuke and Naruto. Even Sakura got sent along on missions with numerous other teams aiding with her medical specialties.

Saki and Sakura comfortably lived together in the same apartment, the blonde eager to invite the other Team 7 members over for dinner even though she was more interested in Sasuke than Naruto. Sakura however refused to let the two alone together. Though the apartment remained empty most days. Saki too was sent on missions with her Chuunin team.

Ino and her team have only communicated with Sakura through letters; their team has spent most of their missions with Suna. The pink haired kunoichi was very happy to know that even though Team 10 was busy, Ino and Shikamaru have officially been a couple for the past three months. The team was still in Suna currently, sitting in on the Kazekage's meetings with other allied countries, coming back only so often to give reports to the Hokage.

Naruto and Sasuke weren't as busy as others, but it would be false to say they didn't have meaningful things to contribute to. Sasuke, though maybe reluctantly, continued to help Iruka with his classes at the academy. On days where some of Team 10 or 8 came back from missions, he'd spend hours training with them. It was a mystery to even Sasuke what the blond did with his time while he was helping Iruka. The blond showed up late to meet up with the raven a lot of the days covered with dirt and sweat. Tsunade was actually lenient enough to allow the energetic teen some missions inside of Konoha, but it didn't sate his want for action.

It's four more days until the trial that will decide the fate of Uchiha Sasuke; Naruto has been noticeably tense and stressed out trying to convince his friend to at least go over what he was going to say. The humid July air seeped through the old apartment, not helping the blond's stress in the least. Naruto was idly lying on the couch waiting to be able to meet up with Sasuke and Iruka when he heard a knock on his door.

As soon as he opened the door he was pulled into a death grip of a hug, "Naruto!" The familiar voice of his teammate filled his ears. She quickly released him, "Ah, I'm sorry. It's been more than a month, I was afraid I'd missed the trial. I'm so glad to see you." She let herself in, setting a paper bag up on his kitchen counter.

"Sakura-chan, how'd your mission go?" He asked, closing the door and making his way to the counter to pear into the bag. "Ramen!" The blond yelled excitedly pulling two bowls out pouring the steaming noodles into the bowls. He took out two pairs of chopsticks, "Let's eat!"

Sakura smiled and sat next to her teammate, "Sai and I went with Saki's team to escort the Tsuchikage's ninjas back to the Earth Village. Thankfully it was a success. Has anyone come home lately? I hope this blows off soon, I'm exhausted. I'm off on another medic mission the night after the trial." The kunoichi rambled as she broke apart her chopsticks and started to slowly eat her ramen.

Naruto shook his head, "No one's been back lately. Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji should be home from Suna soon though." The blond ravenously practically inhaled his ramen before wiping his mouth with a napkin. "I feel kind of bad; the trial is the day before Sasuke's birthday." The shinobi grabbed his bowl and stuck it in the sink before he sat back down with his head in his hands. "Not like Sasuke even cares about things like birthdays."

Sakura gasped loudly, "Oh no, I forgot his birthday was on the 23rd of July…What are you guys gonna do?" She asked curiously, knowing Naruto probably had at least something planned.

The blond grinned mischievously, "It's a surprise. I've actually worked on it for a long time, but it won't be worth anything if the trial doesn't work out well. Just meet us outside your apartment around eight; you can bring Saki if you want."

Sakura's expression immediately changed as she remembered something, "Naruto, have you told Sasuke yet?"

Naruto could have sworn his heart stopped at that moment and he immediately averted his eyes from his teammate. "Of course not. Why would I? You two are in a relationship."

Sakura winced slightly, and continued to try to make eye contact with her friend. "Listen, Naruto. We both know that even the possibility of Sasuke thinking of someone that way is at best slim. We were never in a relationship." She was hoping this bit of news would make the blond at least a little more relieved or satisfied but it didn't.

The blond shrugged, "That's fine, I wouldn't have told him even so. I can't, the trial is in four days and I won't be the one to screw it up for once." The blond noticed Sakura was finished with her bowl and took it and began to wash the dirty dishes in his sink.

"Oh…" The pink haired girl faintly said, staring at her hands on the table almost regretting that she brought the topic up. "Can I ask you one more thing? Then I promise I won't bring it up again." She stared at him pleadingly.

Naruto turned and gave her a reassuring smile and a nod, "Shoot."

"Why do you love him?" Immediately Naruto's face flushed a deep red color.

"W-what?" He sputtered out, hastily retreated his stare at the dishes in the sink. Sakura didn't say anything else just waiting for an answer, he sighed. "I don't know. I don't even know when I realized it. He's cold, harsh, and seemingly doesn't like me. He's a prick and a bastard. I should hate him." Naruto quietly spoke, his voice coming out a little skeptical. "Honestly, I try not to think about it that much. It's just this overwhelming feeling of doing anything in my power to for him. I would give him my dream to become Hokage; I can't put it in any other way than that." Sakura and Naruto's relationship turned back to normal and the three of them spent up to the last day until the trial sparring and training.

Sasuke and Naruto made their way up to Tsunade's office the morning of their trial. "Uchiha Sasuke, do you know what you are saying at today's court?" Sasuke side glanced at the blond and nodded slightly. "Good, Naruto you will be alongside him for a defendant/witness. I trust that you two have worked hard for the past four months." Naruto gave an anxious look to his old teammate.

Tsunade stood up giving them both a stern look, "The Council will _not_ go easy on either of you. I won't be either, but I will be on both of your sides throughout the whole thing. The key to this is: don't lie. They know more things than you'd think, they'll be testing you. Nara Shikamaru has been sent back to Konoha for the representative of the old Sasuke Retrieval Squad from years ago. Hatake Kakashi has also been sent for, but it depends on whether or not he was able to arrive." With each word Naruto couldn't help but move around in anxiety until he was scolded with a glare from Sasuke.

Shizune entered a few minutes later informing Tsunade the Council has formed in the trial area of the tower. "Okay, you two get ready. Shikamaru will come get you when everyone's situated." With those instructions Tsunade left the room followed by Shizune leaving a nervous Naruto and a stoic Sasuke.

The blond walked back and forth the room muttering things to himself, jumping when the door creaked open. "Naruto, relax it'll be fine. Tsunade's got everything covered; they just want to hear what happened. We need to leave now." The bored shinobi left the office briskly, Naruto and Sasuke following side by side.

They entered the room where they were to be trialed, Naruto stood with his mouth agape in awe at the amount of Council there actually were. They were all seated on a bench behind a large curved table with Tsunade sitting on an actual chair with Shizune to her side. Shikamaru squeezed his friend's shoulder reassuringly and took a seat at a small table which also sat Sakura. The blond noticed there were two empty seats, one for Shikamaru and the other he guessed for Kakashi-sensei.

Sasuke grasped the other teen's arm and dragged him to their table situated right in front of the Council's table. "Uchiha Sasuke, you are brought to trial on behalf of your betrayal of Konoha. You've been a missing nin for four years and nine months before Uzumaki Naruto retrieved you, this is true?" An elderly Council member, Naruto guessed him to be the leader, announced in a booming voice. A scrawny pale male beside him was writing everything down hurriedly. Sasuke nodded once. "Uzumaki Naruto, it _was_ you who brought him back?" Naruto nodded his head.

Tsunade looked over to the blond sternly, "Please explain in detail how you managed to bring him back."

Naruto bit his lip, he practiced what he was going to answer this question by probably a million times, but his mind seemed to go blank under the pressure. Sasuke nudge the blond's leg with his own as if to ask him to go on. "Y-yeah. It was the night after we came home from the last mission we were sent on. We were so close but had to retreat back because of Akatsuki. I knew Hebi's goal as a whole wasn't to find Itachi, but to be a stepping stone to get Sasuke to him. So I used this knowledge to intercept Hebi. I used rumors, witnesses, and other evidence I could find until I tracked down either Hebi or Akatsuki. Hebi was actually scattered across the country fighting Akatsuki, so all I had to do was get to Sasuke. I found Sasuke; well it wasn't _that _easy I'm just summing it up. By the time I found him, Itachi was already dead. I had to stabilize his more major wounds at an abandoned shack, when he woke up he had resistance on being taken back, but then he agreed." Naruto took a deep breath afterwards and let out a sigh of relief, he realized he rushed things but it was only what needed to be said. The blond looked to his friend for any sign that things were going well, but his stoic face revealed nothing.

"Uchiha Sasuke, why did you come back?" The Elder Council questioned again.

Sasuke paused for a second to think, "I had and still have to keep a promise. Also, it took me awhile to realize, but Konoha is my home."

"What has happened to Hebi? Are you still in touch with them?"

Sasuke shook his head at the questions, "I don't know what happened to them. It's not implausible that they've died. I am not intentionally in contact with them."

The trial went on like this, the questions seemed to get even more obvious and pointless, but with each question Sasuke stoically answered them without flinching. Naruto began to get more comfortable, his hopes rising. The Council encouraged Sakura to tell of Sasuke leaving then for Shikamaru to tell of the events that happened with the Sasuke Retrieval Squad. "You had no problem leaving the Sound nin to kill your comrades. Why is it different now?"

"I was focused avenging my family. At that time I didn't have any comrades or any sense of belonging to a team. It seemed to me the time to leave to achieve my goal. For lack of a better term, I was blinded." Sasuke stoically said.

It was eight tedious hours of trial before they were all let out of the Hokage's tower. Naruto ran out of the building screaming in joy, "Thank God, it's over! I can breathe!" Shikamaru, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke went to celebrate by eating at a restaurant.

The group departed and Naruto reminded Sakura to meet them in front of her apartment. The blond and raven began to walk home, "Sasuke, your birthday is tomorrow! What do you want to do?"

The raven shrugged his shoulder, "Nothing. Want to spar?" Naruto pouted and nudged the brunette.

"Come on, we spar everyday. Oh, but in the morning I have a surprise. We're meeting Sakura and Saki and then I'll show you." Sasuke stared at the blond suspiciously thinking of what it could possibly be.

The next day Naruto almost broke down Sasuke's door as he busted into his room energetically and jumped on his bed. "Sasuke, wake up! Let's go!" Sasuke merely rolled over to his side trying to ignore the noise coming from his ex-teammate. "Don't you dare go back to bed; you can't sleep in on your birthday!"

"According to you, I should be the one to decide what to do today, dobe." Sasuke grumbled using his elbow to shove the blond off his bed; his ears were satisfied to hear a shriek and a _thunk_ on the floor.

Naruto growled and jumped once more on his teammate and grabbed Sasuke and used his own weight to drag him out of bed. Naruto grinned in his moment of success before he was dragged off the bed by his ankle and hit his head on the floor and once more screamed as his limbs were entangled into Sasuke's. "Teme! That's unfair, now get off me." The raven smirked at Naruto in triumph as he got up off of his teammate. Naruto quickly sprang up and ran out the door screaming behind him, "Get on new clothes, and hurry up!"

The two changed clothes, Naruto being so hasty to get to the surprise insisted that they'd go out to eat breakfast later and dragged his friend out of the house. "Sakura-chan, Saki-chan! Sorry we're late, teme wouldn't hurry up." Sakura looked at Sasuke as he was simply staring in misbelief at the shirt Saki was wearing. Saki smiled sweetly and waved at Naruto and Sasuke. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Naruto led the way.

As they were getting closer to their destination Sasuke realized exactly where it was that they were going. It was the Uchiha Estate. Sakura looked over to Sasuke wearily as they entered the Uchiha clan compound. Sasuke didn't seem fazed at the atmosphere of his past.

They came to the front of Sasuke's old house, Sasuke, Sakura, and Saki stared at it in awe. For more years than they could count this house has been empty. It was a home for spiders and other creatures, the estate was covered in overgrown foliage, dust, and every form of dirt possibly. Though now as the four of them stood there it was as clean as when it was inhabited, the trees, bushes, and other plants were cut back.

Naruto led the shocked group into the house, "Happy Birthday Sasuke!" The house was almost as if it was brand new, the floors were polished and walls were repainted and redone. The blond looked at his surprised friend, anxious to hear what he thought.

"Naruto…" was all Sasuke said and he began to wonder through his house as if inside a dream. Sakura and Saki stood there awkwardly, looking around.

"Wow…Naruto. I wasn't expecting this; you must have worked so hard on this." Sakura said quietly, worried about Sasuke.

Naruto smiled, "I was hoping Sasuke would like it, he could live in here when he leaves my house."

They sat on the floor waiting for Sasuke to get back from wondering around his old home; they decided to give him as much time as he needed to get reacquainted. An hour later the raven came out and stood in front of Naruto.

"Hmn…Thank you," The brunette said barely above a whisper, but as he said this the three other teens stared in surprise simply staring at the small genuine smile in the avenger's face.


End file.
